In the GOP, irrational liars drive the debate

Sarah Palin is standing by her "death panels" remark, despite calls by her own senator, Lisa Murkowski, to stop the distortions. apparently her plea during her resignation to "stop makin' stuff up" doesn't apply to her.

(MSNBC)
In a Facebook posting titled "Concerning Death Panels," Palin argued Wednesday night that the elderly and ailing would be coerced into accepting minimal end-of-life care to reduce health care costs based on the Democratic bill in the House.

In her posting, Palin wrote: "With all due respect, it's misleading for the president to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients." She added, "It's all just more evidence that the Democratic legislative proposals will lead to health care rationing."

But there will be no "death panels" under the legislation being considered. In fact, the provision in the bill would allow Medicare to pay doctors for voluntary counseling sessions that address end-of-life issues. The conversations between doctor and patient would include living wills, making a close relative or a trusted friend your health care proxy, learning about hospice as an option for the terminally ill, and information about pain medications for people suffering chronic discomfort.

The sessions would be covered every five years, more frequently if someone is gravely ill.

The American Medical Association and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization support the provision.

That portion of the bill was authored by Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson (GA). Read again - Republican.

But because the truth cannot be allowed to stand in the way of a good lie in the GOP, many, including Isakson, are backing away from the provision, fearing a backlash by the wingnuts who now form the core of the GOP.

(MSNBC)That was before conservatives called it a step toward euthanasia and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin likened the idea to a bureaucratic "death panel" that would decide whether sick people get to live. And even though those claims have been widely discredited, the issue remains a political weapon in the increasingly bitter health care debate.

Now, Isakson and other Republicans who eagerly backed the idea are distancing themselves from it or lying low in the face of a backlash from the right.

Isakson is walking running away from his own proposal for fear of being to subjected to the GOP's version of Orwell's "2 minute hate" because Obama credited outed him for writing the provision.

But the Georgia conservative found himself in a storm of criticism when President Barack Obama said at a town hall meeting this week that Isakson was a chief architect of the House approach. Isakson quickly issued a statement repudiating the proposal.

"The House provision is merely another ill-advised attempt at more government mandates, more government intrusion and more government involvement in what should be an individual choice," he said.

And youbetcha you don't cross Sarah

Isakson, who initially called Palin's "death panel" characterization "nuts" in an interview Monday, declined later in the week to criticize Palin's statement

Literally, the inmates are running the asylum.

Best Healthcare in the World

This week, an L.A. sports arena was the setting for a free clinic set up by Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corp. This is a group that normally operates in third-world countries and they had to set up a clinic in Los Angeles to catch citizens who fell through the cracks.

People slept with their children on sidewalks to get one of the 1,500 appointments available. And 1,500 was not enough. Hundreds were turned away.

And yet we have the right-wing making us look like a laughingstock by calling us the best healthcare on the planet. (BTW - we rank #37).

(Reuters) - Inside an aging sports arena, where rows of dental chairs and a hospital smell have replaced the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball court, thousands of Americans are seeking free healthcare.

Hundreds were turned away just on Tuesday, the first day of a weeklong clinic run by the nonprofit Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corp as part of its mission to provide free health, dental and eye care in needy spots around the world.

It marks the first time in RAM's 25 years that it has gone to a major U.S. metropolitan area -- a reminder that even in Los Angeles, with world-class doctors and hospitals, many do not have access to affordable healthcare.

Best. TV. EVER! Lawrence O'Donnell takes down TX GOP Rep. Culberson.

O'Donnell tore into Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) on Hardball. Culbertson cannot answer the question as to whether he would have voted for Medicare because it's a socialistic program. This is amazing watching him dodge the question and then admit that he would have voted for Medicare in 1965. Even though he won't simply, as O'Donnell puts it, delete the "65" provision and make it available to everyone.

Rather than admitting to obvious hypocrisy, he goes after MSNBC's ratings, as if this has anything to do with the question of socialism or Culberson's self-contradictions.

Jon Stewart takes down Glenn Beck

The paranoid screamer/crier finally gets his due - called on his outrageous lies, and constant douchebaggery.

Glenn has gone from talking repeatedly about his "personal voyage through the hell that is our healthcare system" in January of 2008 to "Were the best health care system in the world" in May 2008.

The only thing that's changed in those 16 months? He moved to Fox.

Eagles flush reputation, sign Vick

For the first time ever, I seriously question my team. I've been a season ticket holder for over a decade and I am humiliated to be an Eagles fan.

On initial inspection, there are three main issues:

Number one - he did pay his debt to society, but I don't want my team having guys with no, or worse bad character on it. Let him rehabilitate his image working in an inner-city youth football program.

Number two - can anyone say distraction? Didn't the Eagles learn from the T.O. mess how hard it can be to deal with distraction?

How is it going to go over when Vick gets as much attention for sitting on the bench eating a Powerbar (which is all he can do for the first 6 games) as McNabb does for actually playing?

And what happens when #5 lays one of his bound-to-happen eggs and the whole stadium starts chanting to bring in ol' Ron Mexico?

Number three - Great, now we're a gadget team? Fan-****ing-tastic.

This sucks. This is worse than when we almost signed Deion Sanders 15 years ago. It's worse because we got the player this time.

Vick doesn't deserve to wear this number.

If this blows up in our faces, Reid and Banner's deserve to be fired.

I've been thinking about two other players, Donte Stallworth and Leonard Little, two NFL players involved in drunk driving accidents that killed someone. My point on Vick is a little finer.

As I said, Vick did do his time and deserves a second chance.... in society. No scarlet letters, no hairshirts. I believe that. But I believe he is a fundamentally flawed human for reasons I'll list in a second.

Although he deserves a shot at society doesn't mean he necessarily deserves a second chance at the NFL and it's millions of dollars. But he is getting it and I'm annoyed that my team is in any way participating.

Here, to me, is the difference between Vick and Stallworth and Little.

Stallworth made a bad judgment. He drank and drove and someone died. He screwed up big time, no doubt.

Little did the same thing - twice, so he goes up a notch from Stallworth and that he's never been properly punished is an outrage. that he's still in the NFL is wrong.

But Vick made a running set of not bad, but evil decisions. While Stallworth and Little made bad judgments in the moment, Vick's bad decisions and evil actions continued for years.

I'm not a PETA-hugging "dogs are worth the same as humans" guy. They're not, IMO. But anyone who makes a whole series of on-going choices to torture and bankroll the torture of another creature - choices that run for years - is evil.

Or better yet, he is a defective human being. Defective, broken, bad, murderous, evil.

And I don't want my beloved Eagles associated with that type of person.

Vick deserves a chance in society but my Eagles owed him no such opportunity. They sold out character for athletic ability - no John Doe on the street would get this chance. They flushed their reputation and disrespected their fans.

I am pissed. I am embarrassed and I'm finding it hard to root for my team - for the first time in my life I'm finding it hard to bleed green.

Screw Vick.

Screw Reid.

Screw Lurie and

Screw my Eagles.

Obama wants to kill Stephen Hawking

A publication called Investor's Business Daily has broadsided Obama, complaining that a U.S. national health plan borrows too much from the UK. Because in the UK, according to IBD, the National Health Service selectively culls the herd.

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Right.

Does Investor's Business Daily know that under the UK plan Stephen Hawking would actually not be killed, but in fact he would be fine? We know this because Stephen Hawking is BRITISH and he receives his treatment through BRITAIN'S NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES. He is also, currently, alive.

The "brilliant man" himself has confirmed this:

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told The Guardian. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

Obviously, if Obama wanted Hawking dead, he had his chance on Tuesday when he had his hands around Hawking's neck as he presented him with the Medal of Freedom.

The more pertinent question is 'how can anyone trust the recommendations of Investor's Business Daily when they're obviously so full of shit?'

Town halls, attention to screamers, gun-toters and, of course, Fox

Today in anti-gov't conspiracy theories...

Officials See Rise In Militia Groups Across US
(Huff Post)
Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade.

"All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report.

Last October, someone from the Ohio Militia posted a recruiting video on YouTube, billed as a "wake-up call" for America. It's been viewed more than 60,000 times.

"Things are bad, things are real bad, and it's going to be a lot worse," said the man on the video, who did not give his name. "Our country is in peril."

The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.

Alaska Senator: Don't tell lies about the health-care reform bill
References Palin's "Death Panels"
(Anchorage Daily News)
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday told an Anchorage crowd that critics of health care reform, the summer's hottest political topic, aren't helping the debate by throwing out highly charged assertions not based in fact.

"It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there's these end-of-life provisions, these death panels," Murkowski, a Republican, said. "Quite honestly, I'm so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn't (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill."

Murkowski's analysis of the health-care reform measures was delivered to a Commonwealth North crowd of about 130 at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center. The nonpartisan group focuses on public policy issues.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin stirred up controversy last week by suggesting on her Facebook page that people like her parents and Down syndrome son might have to appear before "Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Experts who have reviewed the various pieces of legislation, which run for hundreds of pages, say there's no such provision.

Chris Matthews Quizzes Gun-Toting Town Hall Protester
(Huff Post)
Tuesday's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews' guest was William Kostric, the man who brought a gun earlier in the day to protest President Obama's health care town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Kostric was wearing a (legal) handgun strapped to his leg and holding a sign referencing this Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

The segment grew more and more heated as Matthews repeatedly asked Kostric why he came to the meeting wearing a gun. "Well, why did you bring a gun to a Presidential event today?"

"That's not even a relevant question," Kostric said, shrugging. "The question is, why don't people bear arms these days."

"Okay, you bought a sign that said 'The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants' and you're carrying a god damn gun at a Presidential event. I think those things make people wonder what you're about."

Kostric for his part, was unrepentant, and maintained that he was there in a totally non-violent capacity. "No one from New Hampshire was alarmed. Maybe some of the people they bussed in from Massachusets were alarmed. But we're not really concerned about them."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

What's frightening is that people like Mr. Kostric believe what they're saying. And in Kostric's case, he's relatively well-spoken. Perhaps it's a cultural divide, but to my mind anyone bringing a weapon to a public forum has an ulterior motive. That gun is not a defensive weapon. That gun is a show of force.

Looking at the background and make-up of the Tea Party/wingnut/healther crowd, I think the point Carlos Watson made on MSNBC today is correct: "socialism" is becoming a code word. It's a code word for anti-Obama sentiment that was ginned up during the campaign. Before any of his policies were enacted. I believe that in many cases socialism is code word for the n-word.

So why don't people like Mr. Kostric just call Obama a nigger and get it over with? Why don't these people who "want their America back admit that what they want is a return to a simpler time when you didn't have a black man as president? It's what they want to say. It would at least be intellectually honest to just say it.

Anti-government protester injured at protest, has no insurance and can't pay bills

(Wampeters, Foma, and Pat Falloon)
I like my irony served ironic-as-hell, thank you.

St. Louis - Protesters are demanding justice for a man who was injured during fighting that erupted last week when audience members at a St. Louis-area aging forum began yelling about health care reform.

Backers of Kenneth Gladney, 38, of St. Louis, gathered Saturday at the offices of the Service Employees International Union for an event organized by the pro-limited government Tea Party coalition.

The group claims union members attacked the politically conservative Gladney at the event two days earlier. But members of the union, which supports the president’s health care plan, say Gladney initiated the fight.

On Saturday, Gladney sat in a wheelchair, his knee bandaged, holding a flag that read: “Don’t Tread on Me.” Others who gathered at the union offices held signs with a slightly different version of the message: “Don’t Tread on Kenny.”

Brown told the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was laid off recently and has no health insurance.

2 thoughts:

1) “Don’t Tread on Kenny.” Priceless.

2) He was injured protesting health insurance for everyone and can't pay because he DOESN'T HAVE INSURANCE.

SELF-INTEREST FAIL.

Fine.... we'll stipulate to the following

Daily Kos has agreed that progressives will stipulate to the following in order to advance the health care debate.

Fine. You win. Happy?

1. We will not euthanize your grandmother.
2. Rahm Emanuel's brother will not kill Sarah Palin's baby. While this will require us to gut HR 3200 "America's Health Choices and Murder Sarah Palin's Baby Act of 2009,"
3. The government will not nationalize hospitals and other health service providers. This is another big one. This will be a major setback to Obama's well known communist agenda
- -
7. We will not provide illegal immigrants with unlimited free health care. Though progressives want nothing more than to provide unlimited social services to illegal immigrants while denying them to everyone else, we now recognize that this plan was, perhaps, a bit inequitable. However, while they will not be receiving unlimited free health care, each illegal immigrant will still receive a pretty pony. I'm sorry, but we have to draw the line somewhere.
9. You will not be issued a "National Health Insurance ID." While we thought this was a fun idea, the final version of the health care reform bill will not require you to have any kind of ID when you're pulled over for drunk driving or found loitering outside of a military base. In fact, you are hereby encouraged not to carry any proof of insurance whatsoever. Trust me, it's a terrible idea!
10. There will be no super-secret-awesome health care program for ACORN employees. Though we love our election-stealing squirrels, we have decided that they'll have to settle for the same options as everyone else.

With these concessions having been made, I trust that we can now move forward on health care reform with a broad, bipartisan consensus. Blue Dogs and Republicans, you can now rest easy knowing that the concerns of the town hall protesters have been met. While the progressive dream of a nation in which old people are slaughtered to pay for the abortions of ACORN-employed illegal immigrants will again have to be deferred, we are willing to settle for a bill without these measures in the name of bipartisanship.

Congratulations, Republicans. You've won this round.

The Obama Sell-Out?

It appears that, in an effort to get health care - any health care - to pass that Obama has had to renege on a campaign promise ("Obama will repeal the ban on direct negotiation with drug companies and use the resulting savings … to further invest in improving health care coverage and quality"). It appears that the White House has cut a deal with PhRMA, the lobbying group for the phramaceutical companies, that promises to cap drug cost cuts at $80 billion.

In exchange the drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul.

A corrupt bargain or a necessary evil to get health care passed? It depends on whom you ask.
Slate points out that it appears that PhRMA's chief lobbyist, former Rep. Billy Tauzin, has swindled the administration:

In striking the bargain with PhRMA, Obama broke a not-insignificant campaign promise ("Obama will repeal the ban on direct negotiation with drug companies and use the resulting savings … to further invest in improving health care coverage and quality"). Candidate Obama, citing a paper by Roger Hickey, Jeff Cruz, and Dean Baker of the Institute for America's Future, put the savings at $30 billion a year, which over a decade would be roughly twice the $156 billion savings envisioned by the energy and commerce committee. (Hickey, Cruz, and Baker proposed matching not Medicaid drug prices but those negotiated by the more straightforwardly socialist Veterans Administration.) By this reckoning, Tauzin swindled not $76 billion from President Obama but $220 billion. That's nearly half what the House health reform bill expects to raise with its proposed surtax on incomes above $350,000!

Tommy Christopher points out that the discounts are only in the "donut hole" gap, with 100% cost on everything else:

Baucus’ announcement said drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole — a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare.

So, they’re not actually ponying up anything but a pile of BOGO coupons, and even then, it’s only for the “donut hole.” Everything before and after that $3454.00 gap is paid for at full price by the patient and the American taxpayer.

Big Pharma is essentially giving up a 10% discount, in the donut hole only, in order to reap their 100% windfall when the taxpayer is on the hook.
Oh, and that $8 billion a year in “discounts?” Weigh that against the more than $4 billion they spend each year on those direct-to-consumer ads telling you to “ask your doctor” about things your doctor would already have told you about if you needed them.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich takes issue with the general idea of legislative deals:

I don't want to be puritanical about all this. Politics is a rough game in which means and ends often get mixed and melded. Perhaps the White House deal with Big Pharma is a necessary step to get anything resembling universal health insurance. But if that's the case, our democracy is in terrible shape. How soon until big industries and their Washington lobbyists have become so politically powerful that secret White House-industry deals like this are prerequisites to any important legislation? When will it become standard practice that such deals come with hundreds of millions of dollars of industry-sponsored TV advertising designed to persuade the public that the legislation is in the public's interest? (Any Democrats and progressives who might be reading this should ask themselves how they'll feel when a Republican White House cuts such deals to advance its own legislative priorities.)

And candidate Obama promised something very different, complete with video clips:

But here's the thing. We're going to do all these negotiations on C-SPAN.
The American people will be able to watch these negotiations so if they start seeing a member of Congress who is carrying the water for the drug companies instead of for their constituents and says, 'Oh, you no. we can't negotiate for the cheapest available price on drugs because the drug companies need these profits to invest in research and development', I'll say, 'OK, let me bring my health care expert in here'. And on TV, we'll ask my health care expert, 'What do you think about what the drug companies are saying?'

Transparency. You will hold me accountable, you will hold Congress accountable.

Me? I don't like it. I hate it in fact. But if anyone thought that concessions wouldn't be made to get this past, then they were naive or stupid.

This deal only says that drug prices won't be negotiated by legislative mandate in THIS bill. It doesn't say Congress can't come back to it later. Now, I realize that it's pollyanna-ish to think that the bought-and-paid-for members of both parties will ever do this in my lifetime. To them, they can go go back to their corporate masters and say 'see, we delivered'.

What I'd like to see rammed down their throats in conjunction with this is Rep. Jerrold Nadler's (D-NY) Just Say No To Drug Ads bill. It would "amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to deny any deduction for direct-to-consumer advertisements of prescription drugs". Meaning that drug companies could no longer deduct the $4 BILLION they spend annually on "ask your doctor" ads as a business expense.

You should not be going to a doctor saying, ‘I have restless leg syndrome’ — whatever the hell that is — or going to a doctor saying, ‘I have the mumps,’ ... You should not be diagnosed by some pitchman on TV who doesn’t know you whatsoever.

– Jerrold Nadler

But. Health care has to happen. It must.

This guy is out of his mind