ThinkFast: May 18, 2009
ThinkFast: May 18, 2009
President Obama will meet today with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The two leaders will be bringing “divergent policies on how to approach the Middle East conflict,” with Netanyahu “worried by U.S. overtures to Iran and Syria and under pressure to support a Palestinian state.”
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd “has admitted to using a paragraph virtually word-for-word” from TPM’s Josh Marshall without attribution. Dowd claims she got the idea from “talking to a friend…but, clearly, my friend must have read josh marshall without mentioning that to me.” The Times has issued a correction to Dowd’s column.
Yesterday, Republican leaders “backed Dick Cheney’s attacks on President Barack Obama.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said of Cheney’s recent media blitz, “It doesn’t hurt us, it helps us,” while RNC Chairman Michael Steele remarked, “There was no wincing here.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, “up to 29 percent of Americans would consider traveling abroad for medical procedures” such as heart bypass surgery or hip or knee replacement, “even though all are routinely done in the United States.” When the question asserted that “the quality was the same and the costs significantly cheaper,” the percentage open to traveling increased by 12 percentage points.
“President Barack Obama’s push for a climate-change law this year has set off a lobbying boom on Capitol Hill, where companies are registering to weigh in at a rate of about one every business day.” So far this year, 82 firms, trade groups and companies have signed up to lobby on climate change, which is four times as many as are registered to lobby on the Employee Free Choice Act.
A growing number of coal users, like Alcoa Inc, “one of the world’s biggest aluminum smelters,” have come to acknowledge that “with the right tweaks,” President Obama’s plan to address climate change “would not only help the environment but boost their profits.” Climate legislation “will assist in restoring growth and provide the means for America to be the global leader in low-carbon technology,” Alcoa’s global issues director said last month.
With the 2010 Congressional redistricting approaching, Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) appeared to suggest to Roll Call that Republicans in Congress engaged in gerrymandering during the last round of redistricting. Referring to Democrats, Davis remarked, “They were sleeping last time. They slept through this stuff. I think they’ve gone to school on what we did.”
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair predicted some bank chief executives will be replaced in the next several months as lenders subjected to financial stress tests review their management ranks. Asked whether some bank CEOs will be fired, Bair answered, “We’re requesting it as part of the capital plan and yes.”
“In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, [John] Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff, ” writes The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin. “Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.”
And finally: Former Alaska senator Ted Stevens was back on the “Washington party circuit” last week, at a book party for Pennsylvania radio host Michael Smerconish. When asked about how progress on his memoirs is going, Stevens replied, “It’s a hell of task.” However, Stevens may be open to working with a ghostwriter, telling the Washington Post, “Well, I don’t know that I’m writing it.”
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And finally: Former Alaska senator Ted Stevens was back on the “Washington party circuit” last week, at a book party for Pennsylvania radio host Michael Smerconish. When asked about how progress on his memoirs is going, Stevens replied, “It’s a hell of task.”
Writing fiction is hard, isn’t it, Ted? I mean, it’s not like you’re going to tell the truth.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:04 amYesterday, Republican leaders “backed Dick Cheney’s attacks on President Barack Obama.” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said of Cheney’s recent media blitz, “It doesn’t hurt us, it helps us,” while RNC Chairman Michael Steele remarked, “There was no wincing here.”
Keep flushing that toilet, boys, those turds will eventually go down the drain with the Big Dick.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:08 amKeep flushing that toilet, boys
Sadly, some crap always floats.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:10 amNew York Times columnist Maureen Dowd “has admitted to using a paragraph virtually word-for-word” from TPM’s Josh Mashall without attribution. Dowd claims she got the idea from “talking to a friend…but, clearly, my friend must have read josh marshall without mentioning that to me.” The Times has issued a correction to Dowd’s column.
How uncanny that Dowd could remember, word-for-word a paragraph that a “friend” spoke to her ’spontaneously.’
Really, Maureen, it’s obvious what you take people for…..
May 18th, 2009 at 9:12 amWhat a surprise that Chief Justice roberts would act like a repug in his position! After all, who could have foreseen that he would do such a thing? There is nothing in his past actions that give anyone a hint that he would be like that.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:12 amAccording to a recent Gallup poll, “up to 29 percent of Americans would consider traveling abroad for medical procedures
Roughly 29 – 41 percent of Americans are willing to leave the country for medical procedures? Wow. The days of America being the cutting edge are long gone. Wasn’t there a time when the opposite of that was true, and foreigners (who could afford to) came to America for medical procedures?
It’s so wonderful what deregulation, unfettered capitalism in human service fields, for-profit health care, and corporate oversight of what constitutes acceptable research have done for America. /snark, with extreme disgust/
May 18th, 2009 at 9:14 am“In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, [John] Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff, ” writes The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin. “Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.”
The corporate defendant is the republican party…and versa-visa…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:15 amFormer Alaska senator Ted Stevens was back on the “Washington party circuit” last week
I guess after seeing the way Dick Cheney was welcomed back with open arms, Stevens knew they’d roll the red carpet out for him….
May 18th, 2009 at 9:16 amBearCountry Says: (5),
May 18th, 2009 at 9:17 amMeanwhile, a NYT story this morning notes how Cancervatives have a ‘playbook’ ready to assault President Obama’s SCOTUS nominee.
They don’t know yet WHO they’re objecting to, but objecting, obfuscating, delaying, obstructing ad nauseum is the only plan they have, regardless of the issue.
Noting Stevens’ age, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, “He’s already been punished enough.”
Why? Cuz he racks himself every time he sits down on his “gross, old man balls”?
Just send him a “Nut-Bra“. I’m sure he’d appreciate it.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:22 amLooks like President Obama will be working over time today when he has talk’s with the supreme war hawk nutinyahoo,,,Ugh!..Would hope he will tell him “we are cutting off all your fund’s” because you have been treating your neighbors so poorly, but I doubt it….Happy posting..P. B. & J
May 18th, 2009 at 9:22 amAccording to a recent Gallup poll, “up to 29 percent of Americans would consider traveling abroad for medical procedures” such as heart bypass surgery or hip or knee replacement, “even though all are routinely done in the United States.” When the question asserted that “the quality was the same and the costs significantly cheaper,” the percentage open to traveling increased by 12 percentage points.
So, essentially, the pharma, hospital and insurance corporations are forcing consumers to ‘outsource’ their basic medical needs.
For-profit health care is an abomination, but let’s attack the gay translators in the military instead…keeps the hoi polloi busy while their pockets are picked and their lives are shortened; making room for new meat.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:23 amRaynman: I guess after seeing the way Dick Cheney was welcomed back with open arms, Stevens knew they’d roll the red carpet out for him….
May 18th, 2009 at 9:16 am
and besides, he needed some red carpet for his hunting cabin by the lake…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:24 amFor-profit health care is an abomination,
No culture can pretend to be civilized in which the health of its citizens is sublimated to the wealth of its elites.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:26 amJohn Roberts is a strong conservative who rules more often in favor of prosecution.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:27 amThat’s the republican way — everything is power and authority.
I am not surprised at this revelation, and I am sure most who visit here daily are not surprised either. It is not looking good going forward — Obama will likely nominate someone more moderate in opinion and with Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito all very strongly conservative, moderately liberal judges will hardly offer balance.
E.J. Dionne has an op-ed in today’s Wapo.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051701773.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
He also struck a forceful blow against those who would keep the nation mired in culture-war politics without end.
Obama makes his critics and their stringent arguments look small and petty, as he continues to take the high ground.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:29 amhanshiro the antlion Says:
For-profit health care is an abomination, but let’s attack the gay translators in the military instead…keeps the hoi polloi busy while their pockets are picked and their lives are shortened; making room for new meat.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:23 am
_____________
Hmm. Perhaps there’s a business opportunity here: what with rising medical tourism + out-of-work Arabic translators.
I wonder what it costs to get a knee replaced or a heart bypassed in, say, Jordan or Morocco…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:29 amBearCountry says:
Feeling snarky today? :-)
May 18th, 2009 at 9:31 amStevens is NOT a “liberal.”
He’s only “liberal” in comparison to Roberts, Scalito, and Thomas.
He was appointed by Gerry Ford, fer chrissake, a Nixon legacy…
No Obama appointee will be seated who is “left” of Anthony Kennedy (an Ed Meese acolyte)…
Obama himself doesn’t want anything like a REAL lib on the bench to make him look bad…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:32 am14. tokin librul Says: No culture can pretend to be civilized in which the health of its citizens is sublimated to the wealth of its elites.
Since TP only allows one “recommend,” I’m posting a second, virtual one. Well said.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:35 amI don’t know what country you’re discussing, but American capitalism, particularly with regard to the health care industry, is anything but “unfettered”. As for supposed “deregulation”, I’m not aware of any period during which the Code of Federal Regulations has shrunk.
As for people traveling for health care procedures, I’d think that basically anyone would answer that way — if necessary, we’re going to want what’s best, regardless of where that happens to be located. However, there are plenty of folks coming to the US for procedures that their government plans won’t cover or for which government plans are making them wait. I’ll take “for-profit” health care over government rationing any day of the week.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:36 amchiroptera toasterhead Says:
I wonder what it costs to get a knee replaced or a heart bypassed in, say, Jordan or Morocco…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:29 am
____________
And whatever it costs, you can probably haggle it down a good 30-40% if you’ve got a good translator. It’s win-win-win!
Now this is what I call a crisitunity!
May 18th, 2009 at 9:37 amJust read this from the New York Times:
**And single-payer health care remains off the table? I would like to think that this kind of double-talk from the industry speeds this up but I am afraid it might not. Health care will not change until the industry is reigned in and forced to cut costs and improve services.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:42 amSpeaking of health care, MN’s bully governor, Pawlenty, took it upon himself to solely cut $1B from the State’s children’s health care program.
He claims the legislature won’t work with him. He has sat down with them ONCE in 5 months. With a $6B deficit looming, he will not consider any revenue increases, will protect corporations over sick kids, sees health & human services as a ‘drain’ on for profit businesses and never misses an opportunity to chide the Democrats as ’spending crazy’.
‘Living With Less in the Land of Pawlenty’
Watch him refuse to issue Franken an election certificate, even if the MN Supreme Court rules in Franken’s favor.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:49 amTrue dat, Marie.
Whenever the rights of two parties come into conflict, you can bet the farm that Republicans will favor the rights of the powerful over the powerless.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:54 amSemperLibertas Says:
However, there are plenty of folks coming to the US for procedures that their government plans won’t cover or for which government plans are making them wait.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:36 am
____________
And I’m sure you have some statistics to back this up. Please share them with us.
And I’m not talking about the one-in-a-billion cases of, say, conjoined triplets from Guatemala who can only be separated in an ultra-high-tech U.S. facility. I’d like to see some documentation of the massive numbers of people who are coming to the United States from Europe for routine medical procedures that they don’t want to wait for.
May 18th, 2009 at 9:57 amralph the wonder locust Says:
Whenever the rights of two parties come into conflict, you can bet the farm that Republicans will favor the rights of the powerful over the powerless.
__________
Along w/ the wrongs of the powerful, too ralphie…
Don’t forget the wrongs…
May 18th, 2009 at 9:57 amchiroptera toasterhead Says:
SemperLibertas Says:
However, there are plenty of folks coming to the US for procedures that their government plans won’t cover or for which government plans are making them wait.
And I’m sure you have some statistics to back this up. Please share them with us.
Beat me to it. Anyone who has enough money to travel to the US and then pay for major surgery has enough money to (as a British friend calls it) “jump the queue” back home. If people travel to the US for surgery, it’s for specialized surgery (repairing cleft palates, etc.) not just because they had to wait a little longer at home.
If I’m wrong, SimpleLibertarian can prove it with actual data.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:02 amWho says we even pretend to be civilized? We still have the death penalty, and a substantial portion of our leadership and our media supports torture.
We discriminate against people based on gender and sexual lifestyle.
We heap fortunes on failing CEOs and burning coals on the disadvantaged.
No. We are far from being civilized. And those of us who do the above-mentioned actions do not pretend to be civilized; they wrap themselves in the flag and hold their gospel and proudly proclaim their patriotism and faith as they work to complete their vision of God’s Will and embark upon their holy crusades.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:04 amI yearn for the possibility of medical “private practices” reemerging. I think many doctors and nurses agree. These huge health management organizations pretty much only support large health groups based on how Kaiser takes “care” of patients-you know, where management deals with the money issues not patient care. Imagine being able to see your local family doctor within a day or two of calling. I am lucky to get in within two weeks. I insist on seeing the same doctor because he knows me.
Health care reform isn’t just about the money angle even though my spouse and I spend more each year on our share than we do on our mortgage. Medical professionals are also tired of the gigantic HMOs and medical groups. I think that they, too, would like to get back to personalized health care.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:04 amCageyCretin used appropriate hyperbole to make a point, but you caught him. Good job. Can’t have any hyperbole floatin’ ’round here.
Straw man. “Deregulation” may or may not result in a smaller Code of Federal Regulations when measured by volume.
What it refers to is fewer restrictions on the business practices of the industries it regulates. Care to make the argument that insurance companies operate under more restrictive operational rules after Bush’s reign than they did when Clinton was in office?
And care to back it up?
That’s funny — fewer than half “answered that way”. Perhaps you’re guilty of hyperbole here? Or should we apply your own standards of exaggeration and dismiss your whole comment?
“plenty of folks” is hardly convincing evidence, especially when in service of a standard right-wing talking point.
You’re more than welcome to a system that values profits over your health, a system that only delivers promised care when it can’t avoid it, and which makes more money, at least in the short-term by denying care than delivering it.
The rest of us, we’re fed up with that model. (OOps! I used hyperbole! I guess you can dismiss this comment as well. Lucky you!)
May 18th, 2009 at 10:06 amSemperLibertas Says: I’ll take “for-profit” health care over government rationing any day of the week.
If you think government run health care = rationing, then it follows, for example, that the street lights and roads you use and the Coast Guard too are all being rationed right now.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:08 amBriseadh na Firefly Says:
We discriminate against people based on gender and sexual lifestyle.
____________
It’s not even “lifestyle”. It’s more basic… it’s sexual orientation.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:08 amWell then I guess you pay cash in advance for your health care because insurance companies ration what a patient receives much more than Medicare and Medicaid does. And since you can’t get treated with an insurance card upfront you must give them thousands upfront to be treated.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:12 amObama calls reasoned opposition to his policies “ideological”. You can call that the high ground if you have no understanding of management theory. If one understands profound knowledge, President Obama is just another suboptimizer.
1. Telecom Immunity
2. Gaza silence (while H, Clinton & Gen. Jones knew of war plan)
3. Torture foot dragging
4. Military tribunals
5. DADT Not going away anytime soon
6. Record amounts spent on lobbying
7. Pay for performance
8. Public private partnerships (where public makes 20-25% ROI)
9. Treasury’s ceaseless big money boy bailout (now at insurance companies. Are manufacturers, pensions and private equity next?)
Obama is a politician. His advisers find high ground words to cover his political decisions, those made in reference to supporters and donors.
Watch health care closely. Private for-profit health care dominates the table.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:13 amSemperLibertas Says: I’ll take “for-profit” health care over government rationing any day of the week.
I don’t think anyone has ever mentioned letting the Republicans run it.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:14 am5th Estate Says:
If you think government run health care = rationing, then it follows, for example, that the street lights and roads you use and the Coast Guard too are all being rationed right now.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:08 am
____________
For that matter, isn’t it “rationing” when a health insurance company refuses to cover a preexisting condition, or a preventative measure that their accountants deem unnecessary? Why is SemperLibertas not angered by “rationing” whose only purpose is to pay bonuses for health industry executives?
May 18th, 2009 at 10:15 amThey can’t do it because there’s so much paperwork involved in billing insurance companies they need to be in big groups to consolidate the office help. I know one doctor who works by himself but the only coverage he accepts is Medicare because it’s easy to bill. Everybody else just pays him because his rates are so low and then sends the bills to insurance themselves.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:17 amWhat TP didn’t report in the run up to the Netanyahu visits was:
1. Obama said Iran is an existential threat to Israel
May 18th, 2009 at 10:17 am2. Netanyahu said Israel would never give up the Golan Heights
3. Netanyahu said Israel would continue building in existing settlements
4. A senior White House official (Emanuel, Aselrod?) said the meeting was to “deepen and expand this cooperation.”
“Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.”
So it’s OK to be an activist judge as long as he’s a Republican.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:22 amOver on Wonk Room
Obama’s EPA clears 42 of 48 new mountaintop removal mining permits
The Obama administration has cleared more than three-dozen new mountaintop removal permits for issuance by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, drawing quick criticism from environmental groups who had hoped the new president would halt the controversial practice.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200905150759
May 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am“President Barack Obama’s push for a climate-change law this year has set off a lobbying boom on Capitol Hill, where companies are registering to weigh in at a rate of about one every business day.” So far this year, 82 firms, trade groups and companies have signed up to lobby on climate change, which is four times as many as are registered to lobby on the Employee Free Choice Act.”
Lot’s of the REAL problem is evident in the above statement.
Lobbyist corruption is so deep-rooted they actually have a “sign up” and registration list to circumvent the best interests of the people?
On the bright side…this does offer transparency.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:23 amHow are you feeling today stateofthedivision. I guess you still believe the rest of us can’t get any bad news on President Obama if YOU don’t give it to us.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:25 amMarie says:
Obama makes his critics and their stringent arguments look small and petty, as he continues to take the high ground.
How is ignoring torture by his predicesors because it’s politically expedient taking the high ground? How is ignoring the illegal wiretapping countless citizens because it’s politically expedient taking the high ground? How is turning his back on auto workers while giving the banking industry a free ride because it’s politically expedient taking the high ground? HOw is turning his back on gay and lesbian soldiers because it’s politically expedient taking the high ground? He has turned his back on those of us who supported him, with small donations, with volunteered time, with our votes. I had high hopes for Obama, he has let us all down.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:33 amDoodlebug Shayne Says:
They can’t do it because there’s so much paperwork involved in billing insurance companies they need to be in big groups to consolidate the office help. I know one doctor who works by himself but the only coverage he accepts is Medicare because it’s easy to bill. Everybody else just pays him because his rates are so low and then sends the bills to insurance themselves.
**And that’s the point of a single-payer system. I honestly think a system based on Medicare would simplifly gow the “business” side gets done. I know it might be a pipe dream but it works in other countries. The way things work now you can’t even leave your region without having to pay exhorbitant prices. Talk about keeping us all in our places.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:34 amSemperLibertas Says: I’ll take “for-profit” health care over government rationing any day of the week.
You probably already know this, cuz nobody can be as stupid as that sentence makes you look, but that is just about as “false” a comparison” as there is.
For-profit rations too, of a much more radical kind: people who have money get care, those who don’t don’t.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:34 am.
Aw, all that’s not THAT stupid! THIS is STOOOOOPID!!! Alan Keyes SINGS! He choses a gay favorite. After disowning his lesbian daughter.
Hey. He’s a complicated guy.
I guess.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:38 am.
I find the media blackout on Swine Flu coverage interesting.
Do they really think we’ll all panic & riot in the streets?
Who’s got the antiviral antidotes? Not you or me. Who, then?
And how about Baxter pharma sending out antiviral meds that contained live virii? Another media blackout on that story.
Today’s media:
May 18th, 2009 at 10:38 amNot
Even
What’s
Said
22. SemperLibertas Says: However, there are plenty of folks coming to the US for procedures that their government plans won’t cover or for which government plans are making them wait. I’ll take “for-profit” health care over government rationing any day of the week.
FactSlam in 3…2…1..
Okay, so you’d choose #37 in the world over a ‘government plan.’ (We’ll skip the ‘rationing’ claim since its a unsupported.)
So you would turn your nose up at the #1 health care system in the world: France?
Then there’s this recent survey which puts the lie to the canard about the US being ‘happy’ to put their lives in the hands of insurance flunkies looking to shave benefits and deny coverage to save the corporation money:
In other words, some nations give a damn and provide for their citizens rather than throwing them to a pack of bottom-feeding insurance and hospital robber barons whose mere single contact can reduce the American family to utter tin-cup destitution.
F#@K that.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:42 amUK National Health Service
I sliced the top of my thumb off with a razor blade and had it stitched back on plus a tetanus shot.
I was stabbed in the foot with a garden fork. Two small bandages and some painkillers
My brother broke his arm
My other brother broke his kneecap
My eldest brother had a hole-in-the-heart operation and annual post-op checkups.
I spent a week in hospital with a fractured skull.
Cost: Nothing out-of-pocket and no increase in the NHS contributions from my parent’s paychecks.
My mother spent a month in hospital dying from the ordinary ravages of old age. In fact once we’d settled all the necessary affairs she told the doctors to take her off life-support, which they did without interference from religious/political groups.
Cost: Zero. No claim against her estate, Nothing. Zip.
US Healthcare
I had extreme strep throat that nearly asphyxiated me. Antibiotics; $200 (One week’s wages.)
Mangled two fingers in a saw blade: Stitches and fingernail re-attached, tetanus shots, antibiotics, overnight stay. Cost: $2,000 (Three week’s wages)
I had an abscess, treated with antibiotics. Cost: $400 (One week’s wages)
Oh yeah, and when I was part of a US health insurance scheme the rates went up every year, regardless, until my small business couldn’t afford it any more.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:44 amDoodlebug, enjoy the Rush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Steele, Rove website. News is now found elsewhere than TP.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:45 am47. tokin librul Says: For-profit rations too, of a much more radical kind: people who have money get care, those who don’t don’t.
And as Michael Moore pointed out, even the people who have money and pay their premiums don’t get care, often getting canceled when they make a justified claim.
Why not discard the pretense and just call it:
“Cannibal Healthcare: We’re here to profit from your misfortune.”
May 18th, 2009 at 10:49 amThe difference between not-for-profit health care and for -profit health care is that the former focuses on the patient whilst the later focuses on profit.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:54 amA patient with little money is a liability, a patient with lots of money is a boon.
If a government views all of its citizens as assets, keeping them healthy is an investment.
If government views its citizens selectively, valuing those who have money more than those who don’t, then you get the US health care system, where health care in general, ket alone good health care, is a privilege of fortune.
54. 5th Estate Says: If a government views all of its citizens as assets, keeping them healthy is an investment.
Bears repeating, this…
Unfortunately, the US views their citizens as ATMs and cannon fodder.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:57 am51. 5th Estate Says:
Oh, and 5th, I dunno who put a curse on you but I’d hurry up and apologize…
;-)
May 18th, 2009 at 11:00 amSee you missed my point again. You think you’re the only person who gets other news sources and that you are keeping us informed. If we want to just accumulate President Obama’s negatives they are everywhere. That’s not why we come HERE.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:16 amThe site is what staff and posters make it. Amanda Terkel used to be a fine journalist:
Pensions Probed Succumb to Placement Agents of Campaign Finance
“When you look at some of who the placement agents are, you say these are people who are really not in the financial business,” said Orin Kramer, who oversees pensions as head of New Jersey’s Investment Council. “These are politically connected intermediaries, and that’s not a way it ought to operate.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aJ6iadKJ6BfU&refer=us
May 18th, 2009 at 11:41 amWell… I step out for a bit and the troll is whacked into oblivion, and superbly so, I might add. Informative posts.
But I’ll have to keep my new telescoping spring-loaded whack-a-troll club on my belt for now…
And…. I’m off again (busy day…..)
May 18th, 2009 at 11:42 amSemperLibertas:
The problem I have with that is that you’re doing it on ideological grounds.
Let me clue you in: Liberals do not believe that the government does things better all the time, no matter what.
For one thing, we’ve just had an object lesson in what happens when loonies take over the government.
We don’t believe that the government should run our TV stations, our private colleges, our computer software developers,, our steel plants, our farms, our railroads, our hair salons or our pet food companies. We wouldn’t vote for anyone who proposed nationalizing most industries. Really. We don’t want it.
In short, we’re not your mirror image.
What we do want is safety, accountability, help for the people who need it, and the prosecution of malfeasance when it is done by the powerful.
What we object to in the health care system are its non-capitalistic aspects. Runaway pricing–bureaucratic delay and deny–denial of access–arbitrariness.
In your free-market vision, competition would keep prices down. If you couldn’t get health care at one place, others would flock to help you. If one company started denying people policies because of pre-existing conditions–why, that would be a phenomenal business opportunity! The insurance companies would keep each other honest by snatching away each other’s clients.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? It could even work. But even you should admit that that’s not the system we have today.
And yeah, we look at it and see the big corporations, while you look at it and see the anticompetitive roadblocks. Okay.
But if you were honest, you’d agree that we need to dismantle our present system. And if you were thoughtful, you would see that your free-market system will require far more demolition than ours will.
But you don’t see that. Because this is the problem with the Republican Party AND large swathes of the Libertarian Party: you’re never willing to deal with the sins of actual corporations when they’re at odds with your ideal ones. Somehow you’realways standing up for the people impeding free access to the market, squashing competition by non-market means, and gaming the system of justice. The problem is never sweetheart legislation for the powerful–always welfare. And bleating about ‘earning’ when CEOs form their own compensation boards with their friends.
You might not believe this, but if the health care industry worked the way the electronics industry does, we wouldn’t want it nationalized. But it’s an oppressive nightmare, and even then all we’re talking about is replacing the insurance component.
When I’ve had discussions with libertarians about a libertarian free market state and bring up corporate malfeasance, they always say that the solution would be through the courts. And honest libertarians acknowledge that they rely on a strong and fair system of justice.
But the right wing always seems to whine about the ACLLU, trial lawyers, corporate muckrakers, calling them socialists.
And you don’t see that supporting a free market solution REQUIRES strong corporate regulation.
Too often you’re just the yapping dogs of the oligarchs.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:48 am60. pbeeg Says:
Wow, that is one impressive post. I’m saving that text for future arguments with right-wing idiots. Thanks!
May 18th, 2009 at 12:06 pmIsrael begins new settlement, despite U.S. opposition
Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086339.html
Deja Vu
http://arisfreedomswitch.blogspot.com/2009/05/israel-should-stop-building-settlements.html
Israel obviously wants land, not peace.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:22 pmUpdate on the Netanyahu visit to the White House:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212406429&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
May 18th, 2009 at 1:14 pmTreasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision wants to allow private equity firms to hold majority stakes in thrifts, S & L’s, credit unions. The Treasury move is much looser than current Fed requirements.
The story has the usual suspects, Blackstone, Carlyle Group
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2009/05/treasury-allows-private-equity-to-buy.html
May 18th, 2009 at 6:32 pmI had several replies to my post, so rather than respond to each one individually I’ll try to address some of the critiques and the broader issues.
First of all, with regards to what is commonly known as “medical tourism”. No, I don’t have specific numbers for people coming into this country for the purpose of achieving better or quicker medical care than could be received under a government-run system. However, from what I’ve read, most of the Americans who leave this country aren’t doing so based on availability of necessary medical treatments, but rather for non-urgent procedures based solely on price.
In general, I do not like our current system. I prefer more individual choice and competition in place of bureaucracy and monopoly. The way things work all too often now in the US, it is a bureaucrat making health decisions; I don’t trust “private sector” bureaucrats any more than I trust government bureaucrats; however, it seems that those favoring more government involvement do seem to trust government bureaucrats. I certainly trust someone who has a profit incentive to ensure that I am happy with goods and services with which I’m provided as opposed to a government program in which I’m forced to participate.
In general, monopolies tend to have little incentive for innovation, efficiency, and customer service. The government is the worst of all monopolies, because the government possesses the ability to force your participation. I would also say that in general, corporations are unable to act in a monopolistic fashion without some help from the government. Likewise when “big corporations” end up squashing individuals — usually there’s some collusion with government at the heart of it.
Obviously, there is some role for the government in society, so no, I’m not against, as someone suggested, roads or the Coast Guard (although privatized tollways work extremely well many times). Protecting life, liberty, and property comprise the very purpose of government. Providing goods and services are typically more efficiently and effectively done via a free market, with government acting to prevent fraud and coercion, enforce contracts, and protect individual liberty. Getting the government involved in too much provides more incentive for and means of corruption.
True “health care reform” that provides more individual choice, a freer market with more competition, and that doesn’t favor large corporations that make campaign contributions would be my goal. I don’t trust Republicans or Democrats to provide that.
Thanks for the discussion.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:08 pmJust testing some html here. Move along…nothing to see.
Click here.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:37 amTest. Click here.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:37 am