In these times of record unemployment, there are some sectors that CAN"T hire em fast enough! There are hearts and minds to be won -- and YOU just may have the skills to "get er done!"
Just be ready to check your squeamish morality at the door -- afterall DC doesn't run on good intentions. It's more a city of players. Players who know how to twist arms, take names.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for a second term, delivered at Philadelphia on 27 June 1936, said, "The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power."
Finally a Representative body, that knows WHO they work for ...
Class war breaks out in the U.K. The Labor government announces a tax on exorbitantly-paid bankers. American populists gnash their teeth in envy
By Andrew Leonard, Dec 9, 2009
Unsurprising headline of the year: "U.S. Probably Will Avoid Matching U.K. 50 percent Bonus Tax."
Alistair Darling, the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the tax -- aimed squarely at overpaid bankers
[...]
From Bloomberg:
"There are some banks who still believe their priority is to pay substantial bonuses," Darling said in Parliament. "I am giving them a choice. They can use their profits to build up their capital base. If they insist on paying substantial rewards, I am determined to claw money back for the taxpayer."
Paul Krugman says the move is "entirely reasonable." Justin Fox asks, "why the heck not?" Felix Salmon says "well done."
Since Lobbyists are the "REAL agents of Change" in most of our Legislation, since Lobbyists practically write much of the Legislation, that they Lobby for, insuring that it will Benefit ONLY their Benefactors --
I've been wondering WHEN will the Democratic Party take a stand on this "non representative" process, which contaminates so much of The People's Business, that SHOULD be taking place in Congress? Why is it, that Congress mostly caters to Corporate Business concerns, putting OURS off until some unknown Future date?
Last night, I went onto the House floor and did something that the Republicans aren't used to. I told the truth about the Republican health care plan. The plan is simple:
1. Don't get sick.
2. If you do get sick...
3. Die quickly.
Sounds about right! The Party of No, Knows one thing -- How to say NO!
It's not like Grayson didn't use any Facts to back it up ...
44789 / 365 = 122.7 people per day
Die for "Lack of health insurance" ...
What does 120 People a Day look like, anyways?
That about what it takes to fill up 2 city buses ...
Wyden amendment gaining support By Tony Romm, The Hill - 09/22/2009
An amendment to the Senate Finance Committee's healthcare bill that would permit employees to shop around for health insurance policies is slowly gaining momentum on the Hill.
The idea, pitched by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last week, would open the proposed "insurance exchange" -- where consumers can compare and purchase insurance plans -- to Americans who already receive coverage from their employers.
...
What has made Wyden's proposal especially appealing today, however, is the Congressional Budget Office's recent cost estimate. By their math, his amendment would reduce the bill's impact on the deficit by about $1 billion over the next 10 years.
Health Reform's Missing Ingredient By Ron Wyden, Senator D-OR, NYTimes Op-Ed
September 17, 2009
The various bills making their way through Congress would, as the president explained, provide some consumer choice by establishing large marketplaces where people could easily compare insurance plans and pick the one that best suits their needs.
[...]
The problem with these bills, however, is that they would not make the exchanges available to all Americans. Only very small companies and those individuals who can't get insurance outside of the exchange - 25 million people - would be allowed to shop there. This would leave more than 200 million Americans with no more options, private or public, than they have today.
After reading Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH10) DKos post titled The Private Mandate Sausage Machine which explains how Health Care Reform may/will be twisted into a bill mandating that I purchase private insurance but lacks all content of reform, I would like to make the following statement.
Dear Dems, Feed me a Sh!t/Sausage Sandwich on Health Care Reform and I'll BURN THIS MFing TENT TO THE GROUND!!!!
If the Private Health Care disaster is addressed by making it madatory that I buy junk insurance from the bastards that caused this mess, I will make it my personal business to drive the Corporate snakes from the tent and burn the tent to the ground.
Simply put, if Dems pass a HCR bill with mandates and no public option, I will kick these Dems frakkin asses, and you should too.
Poll Finds Most Doctors Support Public Option by Joseph Shapiro, NPR -- September 14, 2009
When polled, "nearly 3/4 of physicians supported some form of a public option, either alone or in combination with private insurance options,"
[...]
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, conducted a random survey, by mail and by phone, of 2,130 doctors. They surveyed them from June right up to early September.
Most doctors - 63 percent - say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance.
[...]
another 10 percent of doctors say they favor a public option only; they'd like to see a single-payer health care system. Together, the two groups add up to 73 percent.
What the band played as Titanic slowly began to sink is never disputed - ragtime, waltzes, specific tunes noted by survivors included 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and 'In The Shadows'. But a question mark still hangs over what the last song was as Titanic's stern began to rise clear of the Atlantic Ocean, and indeed, would it be physically possible for them to play anything in those conditions?
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, interviews Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, regarding a Robust Public Option:
AMY GOODMAN: Congress member Grijalva, I also want to ask you about Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus and his close ties to the healthcare industry. [...]
REP. RAUL GRIJALVA: I think the product that has come out from his committee and himself, I really believe that it has no legitimacy in this debate. It's an insider product. It's there to protect the industry. It is not there to try to look for that middle ground. He is key in holding up deliberations, has been key in trying to work on a consensus, but everything you see in his legislation had to be approved by the industry before it became part of the plan. So I don't think it's legitimate.
[...] I consider Senator Baucus's proposal to be essentially an insider trader move to protect an industry and really doesn't have validity at all, both political validity or content validity.
SurveyUSA conducted a Poll in Mid-August -- prior to Obama's well-received Speech in September -- and they found that across the spectrum of Demographics Groups, a majority of Americans thought it was Extremely Important to have a Choice of a Public Option!
Here is the Question which was asked, in a Survey of 1200 Americans, from all around the Country:
In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance -- extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?
All Groups
Margin of Sampling Error: ± 2.9%
Survey by SurveyUSA
Geography: USA 50 States
Data Collected: 08/19/2009
Release Date: 08/20/2009
Sponsor: MoveOn.org PAC
The Current Media System favors the Representation of Corporate Interests by our Politicians.
Since the Media Airtime costs so much, Politicians generally have little choice but to give Corporate Speech an Audience, in order to get Elected. ... Helloooo Corporate Lobbyists!
Doctor Linda Peeno, a renown expert in the field of "Managed Care", explains to Congress the dirty little secrets behind the Business of Health Care Denial:
Doctor Linda Peeno, a renown expert in the field of "Managed Care", explains to Congress the dirty little secrets behind the Business of Health Care Denial:
THE REAL DEATH PANELS: Insurance Companies That Deny Care
In the spring of 1987, as a Physician, I denied a man a necessary operation, that would have saved his life. And thus caused his death. And I'm haunted by the thousands of pieces of paper, on which I have written that deadly word: Denied.
Well, The System's Broken [...] Certainly I don't accept, in the richest county on Earth, that we should have 47 Million people without Health Insurance, and Millions of more people being bankrupted because of a Medical Bill.
[...]
As President of the United States, what I've proposed to do, is to make sure that we got a plan that covers ALL Americans.
[...]
The key to making this happen, is to overcome the resistance we're going to see from Drug Companies, Insurance Companies, HMO's. Over the last 10 years alone, Drug and Insurance Companies spent over $1 Billion, in preventing Health Care Reform from happening. That's going to require then, a mobilization of energy among the American People, to insist on a Congress and a White House, that are actually going to deliver this time.
[...]
Those "death panels" really do exist MediaMatters -- August 20, 2009
To date, the media have debunked the "kill granny" lie more than 40 times. The nonpartisan FactCheck.org says the claim of mandatory counseling on ending seniors' lives is "a misrepresentation." ABC's chief medical editor, Dr. Tim Johnson, said "the idea about death panels" is "not at all legitimate." PolitiFact.com has called "death panel" claims "a ridiculous falsehood." When the Associated Press conducted a fact check of the bogus charge, it reported, "No 'death panel in health care bill.' "
After former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed that "Obama's 'death panel' " could decide the fate of her parents or her son who has Down syndrome, conservative radio host Larry Elder aptly called her comments "over the top." [...]
It seems Sarah's still leading that pied-piper Twitter Parade ...
Since the GOP is fond of saying that "the USA has the Best Health Care System in the World", I decided to do a little Fact Checking. ... And according to the World Health Organization:
Health Performance Rank By Country
United States of America:
Performance: On level of health : 72nd
Performance: Overall health system: 37th
Health expenditure per capita in international $'s
Country Rank: USA: 1st
Crossposted at [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/9/151935/4860 Daily Kos}
Change Vs NOOOO!!!
This is my personal account of Saturday's town hall with Representative Scott Murphy.
I have met the wingnuts and looked into their eyes, and they are very scared, badly misinformed, angry, and dumb as hell.
Early on the screamers tried to troll out the event. Representative Scott Murphy (D-NY20) answered back with a line that sums up the whole argument when he said
"When we are done people can tell me what they hate."
I have broken this diary up into four sections, including a breakdown of Congressmen Murphy's conversations with the public and his stance on Health Care reform, as well as pictures from the event, the lobbyists role in all of this, and a statement on the need to throw bipartisanship overboard from now on.
Having engaged the GOP base firsthand, I can easily state that these are the dumbest people in the country.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
