Let's look at President Obama's excuses for not supporting the only real healthcare reform proposal in Congress today, single payer.

1) Avoiding Supposed Ideological Purity:
This is a typical concern troll game. He is pretending that he cares about healthcare reform, while opposing it. The American people want real reform that gets the thieving HMOs and insurance companies out of the business, ending their practice of fraudulently denying claims for medically necessary care.

People who want real reform are not looking for ideological purity. We just want real healthcare coverage. Whenever anyone commenting on a liberal blog complains about "purity," it's just a concern troll. Now, we have a Concern Troll in Chief.

2) Tradition:
Obama cited tradition as a reason not to have single payer. Considering how many egregious traditions our country has had to overcome in the past, one would think that Obama should know better.

3) The Current System Being Such a Huge Part of the Economy:
Obama uses part of the problem as an excuse to avoid solving it. Health insurers and HMOs are so corrupt and inefficient, we are paying more of our GDP for this system which leaves so many people without healthcare when we could spend less money and provide everyone in our country care by switching to single payer.

It's official. Barack Obama is a Bush/Clinton/McCain Republican who is just a really clever concern troll. Obama hates middle class Americans as much as the rest of the Goppers.

Tell President Obama to stop being a concern troll and start working for real healthcare reform. Also, let him know that he should start prosecuting HMO and health insurance executives for fraud and murder across state lines because of their denial of claims which were not only medically necessary, but would have been life saving.

Contact the White House!


 

From Progressive Democrats of America 5/12/09:

Baucus Arrests Five More Doctors, Nurses, Activists
By David Swanson
May 12, 2009, Washington, DC

Dr. Margaret Flowers, who was arrested along with seven others at the first Senate Finance Committee hearing on healthcare, just phoned me from the second one. As Chairman Max Baucus called the hearing to order, about 20 members of the California Nurses Association (CNA) stood and turned their backs on the committee. Pasted on their backs were signs reading: "Nurses Say: Patients First," "Stop AHIP," (referring to health insurance lobbyists), "Pass Single Payer."

This was the second hearing at which, despite majority support for single-payer in polls, not a single advocate for single-payer was permitted to participate. The nurses were asked to leave and did so. But five people spoke up for single-payer and were arrested: Dr. Judy Desovich; DeAnn McEwen, a nurse from Longbeach Memorial Medical Center ICU; Sue Cannon, a nurse from UC-Irvine; Dr. Steven Fenichel from New York; and Jerry Call from Maine.

That's right. Ultra corrupt Senator Baucus not only won't include single payer advocates in his hearings on healthcare reform, but he also is arresting single payer advocates in the audience who are rejecting his fraudulent media circus.

Baucus has major conflicts of interest, to put it mildly. OpenSecrets.org 1/23/09:

Campaigns Donors: Despite having no serious opponent in the 2008 election cycle, Baucus raised $11.6 million for his campaign, nearly twice the amount ($6.7 million) he raised for his previous re-election bid in which he faced a challenger with some real financial clout. Most of Baucus's top 10 contributors have remained the same since the 2002 election--predominantly health and finance-related industries--but nearly all ramped up their contributions this cycle, in the midst of an economic crisis and in preparation for impending health care reform. Absent a threat to his elected office, Baucus's surge in contributions is most likely a reflection of his rise to chair of the Finance Committee, a position that many industries will need to push in order to see their desired policy changes implemented.

Since 1989, Baucus's top donors have been American International Group (AIG), Goldman Sachs and New York Life Insurance--in the 2008 election cycle alone, these companies' employees and PACs contributed $148,550 to his campaign chest. After law firms, securities and investment companies and insurance companies, the most generous industries to Baucus's campaigns have been health professionals and pharmaceuticals. The health sector has given Baucus at least $2.8 million during his career, more than any other sector with the exception of finance, insurance and real estate companies, which have given him $4.6 million.

This year Baucus is looking to spearhead some major changes in health care, including expanding both the State Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid to cover more individuals. He also supports requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance coverage, departing from President-elect Barack Obama's plan, which requires that only children be covered. In November of last year, Baucus released a 98-page "call to action," outlining his visions for a new health care system. Baucus's committee is charged with determining if such an overhaul is fiscally possible.

Industry Favors: "Amgen's political action committee contributes on a bi-partisan basis to federal and select state candidates. The members of Congress and candidates chosen for these contributions are generally supportive of important issues such as patient access to existing and future innovative products, and innovation preservation," said Kelley Davenport, director of corporate communications for Amgen, which has given Baucus $50,750 through its PAC and employees, putting the biotechnology company among his 20 most generous donors.

In other words, Baucus is bought and paid for by the same corporations in the healthcare field that are ripping off and literally killing Americans. No wonder he is doing their bidding by fighting single payer healthcare which would provide real healthcare for all Americans for less cost than the current system which provides partial healthcare to many Americans and no healthcare outside of emergency rooms for others.

The Democratic Senate caucus should be ashamed to have put a Phonycrat opponent of real healthcare reform in charge of the healthcare reform push. It makes about much sense as it would for a restaurant to put Rush Limbaugh in charge of an all you can eat buffet.

Is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dishonest or senile?

Baucus' blatant political corruption is hardly limited to sabotaging healthcare reform. Paul Craig Roberts (Information Clearing House 5/14/09 - Hat Tip Dandelion Salad) points out the role that corruption played in Baucus' opposition to a bill to help people facing foreclosure (bolding mine).

It is not difficult to understand why. Among those who defeated the homeowners bill are senators Jon Tester (Mont), Max Baucus (Mont), Blanche Lincoln (Ark), Ben Nelson (Neb), Many Landrieu (La), Tim Johnson (SD), and Arlan Specter (Pa). According to reports, the banksters have poured a half million dollars into Tester’s campaign funds. Baucus has received $3.5 million; Lincoln $1.3 million; Nelson $1.4 million; Landrieu $2 million; Johnson $2.5 million; Specter $4.5 million.

Baucus never met a bankster he didn't like.

His activities don't just threaten people who already have been screwed over by the corporations. Opposition to healthcare reform means longer lines for everyone at emergency rooms and more hospitals being forced to close down trauma centers. More foreclosures equals lower property values for all American homeowners. Besides, you never know if you will be the next person who is laid off while Baucus's AIG executive buddies get bonuses paid for with government funds.

How much more crap are people going to take from Baucus before there is a major grassroots campaign for him to resign from the Senate? He is corrupt to the core.

 

There is so much sickening crap going on it's difficult to keep up. Here are some brief summaries of why we need to change a lot more than which bought politician is in the White House.

Barack Bush (1):
From the Guardian 5/14/09

The release of more photos of prisoner abuse by US soldiers is "of no benefit" and may inflame opinion against the US, President Barack Obama has said.

The pictures were not "sensational" and every case of abuse had been dealt with by the military, with action taken where appropriate, he said.

President Obama is lying as blatantly as Karl Rove did while he is continuing the Bush Agenda. Obama also is displaying a Bush style contempt for the rule of law.

And, people wonder why so many Americans don't even bother to vote.

Ratzi Serves Up Still More Hypocrisy on His Mideast Trip
This from The Guardian 5/14/09:

Benedict's message contained little of the fraught Middle East politics that have taken a high profile on his trip so far. Instead, he spoke of the importance of the family in the Christian community and encouraged all his listeners to "reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men's souls before it kills their bodies".

Setting aside the fact that souls don't even exist, Ratzinger has an enormous nerve lecturing anyone else about "the destructive power of hatred and prejudice." That monster was the architect of the previous pontiff's viciously heterosexist and misogynistic policies. Ratzi continues to push those policies today. Ratzi criticizing prejudice would be like me criticizing somebody for too long of blog postings.

Bloomberg to Tenants: Drop Dead!
From the New York Times 5/5/09: (Hat Tip Rent Stabilization Association)

The board that oversees rents for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments proposed a range of rent increases on Tuesday, disappointing tenants and their supporters, who say the recession warrants a rent freeze.

In a preliminary vote, the city’s Rent Guidelines Board proposed increases of 2 percent to 4.5 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent to 7.5 percent for two-year leases. Last year, the board approved its highest set of rent increases since 1989 — 4.5 percent on one-year leases and 8.5 percent on two-year leases. The board will hold two public hearings, on June 15 and June 17; it is to take a final vote at a meeting June 23.

The NY Times is a strongly anti-tenant paper which conveniently neglects to mention that the Rent Guidelines Board is made up of Bloomberg appointees who take their marching orders from city hall. These rent increases during a deep recession represent yet another attack by Michael Bloomberg on middle class and poor people in NYC. He really hates anyone who isn't rich.

Barack Bush (2):
This has to be one of the most sickening trial balloons by the Obama Administration so far. (AFP 5/14/09)

Obama mulls 'indefinite detention' of terror suspects

WASHINGTON (AFP) — As part of its plans to close Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration is considering holding some of the detainees indefinitely and without trial on US soil, US media reported Thursday.

President Barack Obama's "administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on US soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay," The Wall Street Journal said.

I would like to think that the Wall Street Journal is lying, but I doubt it in this case. Indefinite detentions are the practices of totalitarian states like the former Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Bush regime. Truly free and democratic societies never do this. I had hoped that President Obama would at least reject the Bush regime's contempt for the rule of law, but even that appears to be too much to ask for from this Clintonian Phonycrat.

 

From an email I received from Progressive Democrats of America (edited):

...please don't forget to email your representative tomorrow to let them know you favor single-payer healthcare and ask them to co-sponosr HR 676. Get the details here.

...Read the the reports on the final Senate Finance Sub-committee on Healthcare hearing. Five activists were arrested, while others were outside (pictured) with PDA Advisory Board Chair Mimi Kennedy and the California Nurses Association protesting the exclusion of single-payer healthcare from the debate. Learn More.

The battle lines are drawn and we're doing our best to move single-payer healthcare forward--we appreciate your support!

If you have ever been denied coverage for healthcare you needed, you know why we need single payer healthcare to get the insurance companies and HMOs out of the business altogether.

Find and Contact the People in House and Senate Who Are Supposed to Be Representing You!

 

Keith Olbermann really went off the deep end this week. He actually engaged in some grandiose and nonsensical kissing of Rush Limbaugh's enormous butt. (I guess it was a pretty easy target.) He actually accused Wanda Sykes of "crossing the line" during her fabulous performance at the White House correspondents dinner. (Go to my previous posting to watch her entire performance.)

Here is the portion of the routine that reduced Keith to a state of simpering twitdom.

WANDA SYKES: Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics. Uh, boy, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails.

You know, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails.' You're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail.

To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.

You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.

Too much? But you're laughing inside. I know you're laughing.

Watch Olbermann and his craven guest grovel to the titanic Limbaugh (Hat Tip AKA William):



The notion that 911 is this sacred and holy event is ridiculous on so many levels. As someone who lives in NYC and who lived in DC during the attacks, I find it ridiculous that influenza kills far more Americans than terrorism, yet it's OK to joke about the flu but not about terrorism. (Monty Python's Life of Brian does a wonderful job of mocking terrorists, by the way.) It would have been one thing if Sykes' mocked the victims, but she didn't. She mocked the terrorists and Rush Limbaugh who hates America and American values at least as much as the 911 hijackers did.

But, there is a more sinister side to the fetishization of 911. It is an act of war mongers employing fear mongering to manipulate us into going along with the most monstrous of crimes.

It is a fact that the war on Iraq is a far more massive act of terrorism than the 911 attacks. (If you dispute the last sentence or find it offensive, you are suffering from both a terrible lack of intellectual and moral integrity.) The war on Iraq has resulted in the slaughter of over 1.3 million Iraqis. Fetishizing 911 has been an effective tool to get frightened Americans to look the other way from this act of genocide.

Killing is wrong. Cynically exploiting deaths in order to perpetrate more killing motivated by greed, racism, and religious prejudice is reprehensible. Keith Olbermann's craven pandering to Limbaugh only furthers the goal of the war mongers who have used these reprehensible tactics for far too long.

And right wing extremists love saying that Keith Olbermann is "liberal," when he is mushy moderate who is afraid of "crossing the line," even when the line has been drawn by war criminals who hate what this country stands for as much as Osama bin Laden.

Does Olbermann even remember that Americans fought a revolution to be free of a foreign empire?

Fuck you Keith! (And, you're not hot enough for me to mean it literally.)

 

Irony Alert!

From CNN 5/10/09:

AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) — Pope Benedict XVI urged greater respect for women Sunday at a historic Mass in the Middle East.

“Sadly, this God-given role of the dignity of women has not always been understood and esteemed,” the pontiff said on his first visit to Jordan as pope.

Let's look at Ratzinger's own record on women.

1) In an effort to reduce women to the legal status of incubators, he opposes the right to choose on abortion.

2) He incites acts of terrorism against abortion providers and women who use their services by fraudulently claiming that fetus and embryos are "human lives."

3) He absolutely discriminates on the basis of sex in hiring for the Catholic priesthood.

4) He opposes birth control to try to keep women barefoot and pregnant.

It is hardly surprising that an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth is using Hitler's Big Lie tactics, claiming that abortion takes human lives, to further Hitler's anti-choice agenda on abortion. Given their far right bias, it also is not surprising that the corporate media let Ratzinger get away with all of this.

With so many Catholic priests traveling to the Middle East, I hope the people there know to hide their children.

Photo: eürodäna

 

From the Greenpeace Staff Blog 5/8/09:

Sec. Salazar has announced he won't rescind the "polar bear special rule," which exempts global warming from protections afforded polar bears by the Endangered Species Act. If we're going to save the polar bears and stop global warming, we can't let Salazar off the hook for this travesty. Please call Sec. Salazar today and tell him how disappointed you are.

Personally, I'm more worried about Global Warming and the rule of law than the polar bears, though I don't want them to go extinct either. It really is a shame that Salazar and the rest of the Obama administration are putting the interests of Dick Cheney's cronies in Big Oil and Big Coall above their legal obligations under the Endangered Species Act and their ethical obligations to protect the planet. This is yet another example of why we need public financing of campaigns. Bought politicians are dangerous politicians.

You can do something about this.

Making a call is easy, fast, and extremely effective. Simply follow the steps below:

1) Call (202) 208-7351 between the hours of 9am and 5pm ET. If you can't call then and don't speak to a person, skip step #2 and leave the message below.

2) The phone will be answered by a staff person in Secretary Salazar's office. Tell them your name and city and state you are calling from, and then tell the staffer you are calling to leave a message with Secretary Salazar about the Endangered Species Act and polar bears. You will then be asked if you would like to use the Interior Department's comment line, politely say no, and say that you would prefer leaving your comment with the staff person you are speaking with so that he/she can give that message to the secretary directly.

3) Leave your message. Here's a sample:

"Hi, My name is ______ and I am calling from ______. I am extremely disappointed that the Secretary did not take action to strike the polar bear special rule from the Endangered Species Act. This means that polar bears are not protected from global warming, which is the primary threat to their long term survival. Please give the Secretary the message that I am calling to express my disappointment that he did not take action to protect the polar bear from global warming."

On a completely unrelated note, there is another episode of Onward Christian Dullards: Lesbian Aunt.

 

Miss California and her rightist supporters are throwing fits over queers and liberal supporters discussing her hypocrisy in proclaiming religious piety as her reason for opposing same sex marriage while having posed almost naked in photos. Letters from the Sanitarium sums up the issue quite well.

Oh now you admit you're imperfect after insulting millions of people? Now you're the victim--classic martyr complex. You say that you're against gay marriage because you believe in traditional, Christian values, which say that gays are an abomination to God. Then you turn around and get offended when people look into your personal life and find things that don't match what you say and believe in? It's classic, "Do as I say and not as I do" behavior that has too often defined the Christian religion in America. We don't feel that we have to tolerate what we see as intolerance--why should we? You certainly don't tolerate the gay lifestyle so why should I tolerate that defiance when I firmly believe it stands against basic human dignity and respect?

Yes, of course you have every right to be against gay marriage but you don't then have the right to shut people up who disagree with that view and see it as an antiquated, bigoted view of the world. You don't have a right to tell people that they can't get angry at you in response. You can control your discisions in life but not the consequences. So if you want respect then you need to dish it out too. Respect doesn't come from one side--you can't insult an entire segment of the population and the many who support them and then get offended when there is blowback at you. You judge all of us "sinners" every Sunday in your churches and throughout the week in your circle of friends and then you expect us to just sit on our hands and not speak up for ourselves? Bullshit in a chef's salad my friends.

Miss California wouldn't be in so much hot water if not for how she symbolizes the whining, hypocritical behavior of bigoted religious extremists in this country. They see queers as whipping boys and girls and get offended when any of us or our supporters decide to fight back. They get so much positive reinforcement for their hate in their Christ-Marts that they actually feel entitled to it in the real world.

Personally, I'm even more bothered by the Rick Warrens of the world, the preachers who make the big money and get the big numbers of followers. They play this same game, and the corporate media try to make everyone feel sorry for them, while having absolutely no compassion for the targets of their hypocrisy and hate.

If they taught basic logic courses in high schools and made them required, the fundamentalists wouldn't be able to get away with this nonsense. Of course, corporate interests wouldn't be able to get away with their nonsense either.

 

Are you an atheist? Do you have a blog? Do you know about Atheist Bloggers?

Atheist Bloggers is an online community of atheists with blogs. It's a great way to learn about other Freethinkers' blogs and it can help to publicize your blog.

Check it out!

Here's my button. All you atheists go get yours.


View my page on Atheist Bloggers

 

Part 1

The jokes about White House staff having to let Obama win at basketball were hysterical. Her jabs about Biden's loose lips were great. The Tax Ball routine was good too.



Part 2

I loved the Texas, Hannity, and McCain jokes. Of course, the Limbaugh jokes were the best of the entire routine.



An irate rightist, Freedom Eden, ran a transcript on the Limbaugh part.

WANDA SYKES: Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics. Uh, boy, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails.

You know, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails.' You're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail.

To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.

You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.

Too much? But you're laughing inside. I know you're laughing.

This was hysterical, mainly because there is a fairly large kernel of truth in it. Rush Limbaugh and others on the lunatic right fringe really do hate America and what our country stands for as much as Osama bin Laden.

 

The seniority system should not exist.

The seniority system is a corrupt holdover of days where political bosses had absolute power over the political process. It is undemocratic and leads to highly inappropriate people rising to positions of power. If you think it is a Democratic Party problem, remember that the Goppers follow seniority even more slavishly.

In our current political and economic context, it is even worse. The longer people are in politics, the more immersed they tend to be in the culture of wealthy and corporate corruption. In the Senate, seniority is followed more than in the House, and the Senate is so backward in so many other ways that seniority only adds to the intellectual and ethical rot.

Yet, the real issue on the question is being ignored by the corporate media who think that wealthy and powerful connections should always trump merit.