If I said something I should apologize for, here, let me say it again
Apparently I said something the other day that upset Matt Entenza’s people. I didn’t bother to check to see what it was, but it undoubtedly stemmed from my complete mistrust of anyone who’s married to the former CEO of UHG’s Ovations, a healthcare insurance company that bled their policy holders to the point where the now retired Bill McGuire “earned” one billion dollars as their CEO.
Quam’s got an op-ed in today’s Strib on the public option, and has been pushing that button for a while now. I’m not clear if she was in charge of Evercare, but it would be nice to hear her thoughts about that UHG venture that so thoroughly screwed over seniors. (Whoops — I guess there is a connection!)
Evercare is not an easy google, but was clearly a big player in Bush’s efforts to privatize Medicare. Given that Candidate Enteza’s wife was ranked #24 on Forbes’ Most Powerful Women list a few years back, I think some straight talk from Lois Quam would be in order. After being paid to push the Medicare privatization hooey, excuse me for not trusting her sincerity on the public option.
But thanks to all of Matt’s people for taking me seriously enough to bitch about what I wrote, whatever it was. (sniff) It’s nice to know that someone reads me.
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Betty McCollum made Jane Hamsher’s list.
It’s not a good list to be on.
In other healthcare reform related news:
Texas’ Joe Barton says GOoPers will repeal healthcare reform if they retake the House
New video shows an Iowa Republican farmer/veteran ripping on Chuck Grassley over public option
Texas’ Pete Olson got booed for trying to use a private sector FAIL as an argument against the public option
Veterans’ group goes after the ridiculous Fox/GOP claim that a VA handbook is pro-euthanasia
Fetishizing death by chocolate
Not only is Obama not promoting euthanasia, his administration is trying to kill off one of the few euthanasia orgs we’ve got
Teddy’s actual plan (way better than the crap currently on the table)
Maha draws what in retrospect is a very obvious parallel between healthcare rationing and food rationing — we’re not short on either, just short on money to pay for what’s available
ATR on Daschle (but I’m sure Tom and Lois Quam and Matt Entenza are great friends, or at least they should be)
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The Minnesota Nurses Association is HQed just off Snelling on Energy Park, maybe a mile and half from my place. They’re the kind of union that drives serious union people to drink (more).
Jason Bauman is running for three elected positions within the MNA. If you’re a union nurse, not only could you do worse, you probably have, repeatedly.
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One of the smartest things I ever did was to stop seeing doctors. Frankly, you can get the best of what they have to offer over a beer or two. In an office setting the quality of advice goes downhill pretty quickly.
I also quit taking meds and started using vitamins and diet to address whatever health needs I thought needed to be addressed. That’s also worked out quite nicely, or at least better than the meds ever did.
Now a behavorial psychologist and a psychiatrist have teamed up to explain how depression aids in problem solving. (I’m very big into problem solving.)
Maybe not in my lifetime, but I strongly suspect we’re not too far off from the day when real experts look back on 20th Century medicine and condemn it for trying to “cure” some of our best natural coping mechanisms.
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57% of Americans would say yes to booting every member of Congress and holding new elections.
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Good luck finding any U.S. media that will explain to you that Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party was the conservative party in Sunday’s elections.
Hatoyama, the man who would be prime minister, has promised to boost welfare and socialize the country. He has said, “I want to create a horizontal society bound by human ties, not a vertically connected society of vested interests.”
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Republicans:
Ripping on Herbert Hoover for being too liberal
I guess these people must all be turncoats
Pastor Steven Anderson doubles down
Little crook ripping on bigger crooks
Because if there’s one thing the base can’t get enough of, it’s Mitt singing Bony Moroni(e)
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Max Sparber with the latest on the Twin Cities’ worst cops ever, and here’s a good Rubén Rosario story on the Metro Gang Task Force that I missed. Jonathan Turley with more cops gone bad,
Jeralyn has more on wrongful executions, and more from Turley, this one on how it’s impossible to rape a prostitute. (It can be done, and is done quite often. I lived with a prostitute once — don’t try this one at home — and one of her coworkers was raped. Not a very bright woman, but what was done to her was wrong and she called the cops. They laughed at her. That was 25 years ago in Des Moines, but hookers still don’t call cops because they get the same reaction. A bullshit reaction not unlike saying a professional boxer can’t be mugged, or that an investment banker can’t be swindled.)
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Lies about Honduras. (same lies as before, all already debunked but the Wall Street Journal seems to have become the print edition of Fox News)
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Teddy at Liberty University, and some unkind words from Alexander Cockburn.
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More religion:
PZ with a video designed to explode Bill Donohue’s head
Married in Iowa (should be a bumpersticker — the rainbow stuff is getting old)
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Business robocalls will be illegal as of tomorrow.
So is spam. Somehow I doubt my life will change, or that I’ll stop getting them. I’ve always suspected I’m on a DO CALL THESE LIBERAL FUCKERS list as I’ve no doubt but that most robocallers are Republicans.
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New LA-centric Clusterfuck Nation.
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Public art that anyone could love, as opposed to political art (that I really love).
Van JOHNSON?
What did he say, that he was straight after all?
HA!HA! Corrected that one just as you were posting your comment!
I gave some protest advice to the folks over at “Freedom Dogs” who are calling for the masses of angry republicans to show up at Betty McCollumn’ town hall that started at six tonight. As for the responses back, I have had suction cup tipped arrows cause more pain.
DeKay – ” Prepare to be outnumbered and videotaped. Get ready to be ridiculed for being ignorant and uninformed. Being on the wrong side of the issue will be made obvious, for the truth is not easy to admit. Remember the majority of the populace does not appreciate your loud mouth disruptions and the shutting down of policy development.
Years from now, people will still have access to the images and statements of the neo-con protesters and you will not be able avoid the embarrassment.
Better yet just go as a citizen, be patient and behave like an adult.”
Yesterday, 8:09:42 PM CDT – Reply via Comments
Lassie – “”Better yet just go as a citizen, be patient and behave like an adult.”
Please pass that advice on to SEIU members!”
Yesterday, 10:30:20 PM CDT – Reply via Comments
Sheila – “You guys better be prepared to be photographed and videotaped too— fools”
Today, 3:59:10 PM CDT – Reply via Comments
Koski you big [hunk of man], you. Where were you when [other Democrats] needed you last night?
[NOTE TO ALL COMMENTERS: I WON'T BE SHY ABOUT EDITING YOUR COMMENTS IF YOU'RE JUST HERE TO TAUNT.]
Couldn’t make it. My wife usually gives me a ride on her Harley, but it was in the shop.
Say I’ll be at the State Fair on Friday. Why don’t we get sno-cones and ride the chair lift. It’ll just be you and me, suspended together, bridging the unfortunate divide.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dktoday/295003136/sizes/l/
Oh what the hell,
At least this stuff has some excitement to it.
Of course this is from the WMR Wayne Madsen Report
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20090830
August 31, 2009 — CIA used Blackwater-linked mercenaries as journalists
(Some of it)
“The CIA used credentialed journalists to engage in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations from 2003 to 2005. WMR has learned that two individuals working as sub-contractors to the CIA had significant links to Blackwater’s CIA-approved and sanctioned operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran. Both traveled with credentials issued by United Press International (UPI), the wire service owned by News World Communications, owned by South Korean cult leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon.”
“Both faux journalists were also in Uzbekistan in the months following 9/11, ostensibly to cover the regional news from that country. However, the country was also a focal point for U.S. military activities in the region and in 2005 Uzbek forces launched an attack against protesters in Andijan, killing up to 1500 people. The government claimed the protesters were Islamic radicals but later admitted they were protesting poor economic conditions.”
“The Secret Service refused to interfere with the Blackwater employee’s access to the presidential candidates of both parties, claiming that who presidential candidates chose to have as their personal security members was their business. The Blackwater employee also was permitted to fly on regularly-scheduled commercial flights with the loaded weapons.
The employee’s affiliations were not much of a secret as one source reported that he had a “huge Star of David” tattooed on his chest.”
Can I say Cockburn’s stance on the matthew shepard law is really fucking stupid? And as for Chappiquidic, he didn’t delibrately murder the girl, it was negliance.
You speak the truth. Matt Nixon Entenza investigated a fellow democrat then lied about it. He can not be trusted. Don’t let Nixon Quam Entenza intimidate you.