I Hope You're Happy

Watch this, the whole thing it just keeps getting worse.

Thanks for student journalism.

10 things ever Teapartier should know. Really.

I think this is pretty dead on.

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes
2. The Stimulus is Working
3. First Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt…
4. …Then George W. Bush Doubled It Again
5. Republican States Have the Worst Health Care
6. Medicare is a Government Program
7. Barack Obama is Not a Muslim
8. Barack Obama was Born in the United States
9. 70,000 Does Not Equal 2,000,000
10. The Economy Almost Always Does Better Under Democrats

I won’t have none of your gol’ dang evolution nonsense in this country

We don’t get to see the movie about Darwin discovering evolution and struggling with faith because heaven forbid we have a small art house movie provide some introspection for us to examine our own faith and beliefs. No, we need someone else to tell us how evil it is. Don’t believe them, those scientists are horrible people who spread lies with their empirical evidence and their scientific method. I have a book. Everything you need to know is in this book. But not just any one of this book. It has to be my version which has only the parts I and this James guy approve. Don’t read Darwin. He deal in facts.

Texas will no longer teach about the moon landing?

Obviously there wasn’t enough God involved.

Hmm, maybe that Nazi Obama parade float wasn’t such a great idea after all

Ya think?

Republicans are coming down on Olympia Snowe

The only one of them who really seems to think about, well, things, and make good choices for her constituents, based on facts and reason. Damn shame. Sen. Rockefeller hints at the pressure, and that she’s considering switching sides.

A Customer of Bank of America begins her own revolt against their high credit card rates

So your credit card company starts you at 12.99% then gets over-leveraged on bad investments mostly due to greed, then they double your card rates just to cover their own mistakes while rewarding the people who made the bad investments. Get out the guillotine and start chanting “Liberty”!

Orly Taitz’s client writes a letter renouncing her, Taitz believes it is a forgery

The birther queen has really let this whole forgery thing go to her head. I wonder if she believes in her own birth certificate?

Defending the decision to abandon the missile shield

Rep. Steve King: My best vote was against disaster relief for Katrina victims

Yes, Steve King (R-IA) thinks Katrina victims and New Orleans didn’t need any help.

Republicans are against net neutrality

Hm, what a surprise they are for big business and against what would be good for people. Net neutrality affects what voices are heard, what data is available to you and a lot more than you’d think.

Of course, this could just be another example of the “Party of no” Republicans. The Dems are for it, so obviously it must threaten our freedoms and our way of life, except that net neutrality is about freedom…I wonder how they justify this?

Michele Bachmann advocates zero regulations for insurance companies

Let’s think about this just a little bit. When’s the last time too little regulation worked out well for America? Let’s go back to the current meltdown. Or maybe the Savings and Loan Collapse, or the manufactured energy crisis in California, or Enron, or the oil speculation market, or the, well, the list keeps going. This is a fallacy of Libertarianism that just has to die.

There’s two kinds of Libertarians. One seeks free markets because the feel an unimpeded market will do what is best for it. They’re wrong. The market is driven by greed, not sense and practicality, and we’re reminded all too often (usually with an economic collapse and millions of Americans suffering) when that greed gets too overbearing.

The second is even more naive. The second believes that without interference, the markets will naturally do what is best for Americans and itself in a very altruistic way. This is the Ayn Rand, theory, but they are the Trekkies of the political world, relegated to the fringes of politics by their inability to recognize social dynamics. They stand over in the corner, sneering at the rest of us and our inability to see how great their idea really is.

But you know what I may have this group wrong. They may be the punk rockers of the political world, marginalized and sneering at authority, ready to trash a hotel room for their cause. Yeah, the altruistic libertarian is the Sex Pistols of politics, Ron Paul, the Johnny Rotten of them all.

I guess this would make the Michele Bachmann sort into the Pop Punk movement, out to make a buck while barely being competent at their trade.

Either way, we’re fucked.

Facts and Figures

8 in 10 support the goals of Obamacare

It’s just when we get to the implementation of them that we start falling apart.

Who gets the most health care contributions?

The House Democrats got $15.5 million in contributions from health care organizations, Republicans got $12.2 million. Since there’s more Democrats, I’m thinking it’s a tie.

Job posting: Medical Denials specialist

This might have vanished, so I’ll quote the text:

Accountemps is currently seeking a Hospital Billing Clerk in the Health Care industry in the Woodland Park area. The primary responsibility for this Medical Denials Specialist will be to assist with insurance/3rd party billing in a high volume, fast paced environment. This position has the opportunity to go full time, offers wonderful benefits, and has the potential for growth.

This Medical Denials Specialist position requires three plus years of hospital billing experience, including ICD9/CPT codes and medicare/medicaid billing and fast and accurate data entry skills. Prior background working in a hospital is preferred.

Meet the opposition

Photo Showing millions protesting Obama care is a lie

The photo circulated showed a swarm of people in the Capital mall. Michelle Malkin and others claimed 1.2 million attendees using the photo to support their claims. Politifact checked out, turns out the phot originated with a 1997 “Promise Keepers” rally judging from evidence. The National Museum of the American Indian, built in 2004 is not in the picture. The Cranes in front of the Smithsonian were last there in the 1990’s when the IMAX was being built. For the record, the D.C. Fire Dept chief estimated 60-75,000 people showed up. That’s a pretty big margin of error, there. Well, now that we’ve blown the cover off that lie, can we move on to some truth in the debate?

Op-ed on the tea-partiers going to Washington

You can’t have a protest if the crowd can’t agree on what it is protesting. By caricaturing Obama as the embodiment of all evil (quite a few signs depicted him as Satan), the protestors lost not only cohesion, but also coherence. So maybe the way to describe what this Teabag party had in common was “anger.” Also, they were virtually all white people, most of them baby boomers, no doubt a few of them carrying concealed weapons, and the overwhelming number of them seriously overweight. But here again, we get back to incongruity. How can anyone take your protest against socialized medicine seriously when you are marching in your motorized scooter, bought for you by Medicare?

Joe Wilson’s pants are on fire

Seems Joe “You Lie” Wilson voted in 2003 for a bill that pays (a pittance really) for health care for illegal immigrants. The bill has been extended and a bipartisan effort is working to make the bill permanent. I think this goes to help hospitals absorb the costs instead of passing it on to their patients, but still, we’re paying for it.

How we’re blowing it

How GOP cranks are dominating the debate

Democrats are defined by the calm head of Barack Obama, the Republicans, with their disorganization, are defined by the loudest crackpots.

Bill Maher Real Time: Hey Democrats – Grow a pair

“Stand up for the 70% of us who aren’t crazy.”

There’s a lot of truth here.

To start things off, I have a new proposal. I won’t say all of Congress, but all those who vote for whatever plan comes out of Congress must take it. If a plan fails to pass, ALL members of congress should be forced to do without.

From the Facts and Figures Dept.

Now, that being said, here’s the best thing I have heard said about the health care debate by a Congressman, and it happens to come from Al Franken. For an Ultra-Liberal, he’s very middle of the road and practical here (and way better than Norm Coleman).

Obama may drop public option

Word is that the public option is so sticky, Obama may drop it.

Then again, maybe Obama is ready to take the wheel on this monster truck

Well, then, finally change we can believe in.

Does Preventive medicine really make savings?

In this article, no.

Excellent Bill Moyer editorial about the whole debate

It’s hard to argue with the coverage on this

The rates of denial of claims on various insurance plans

I won’t usually link to DailyKos, but this is fairly free of bias and the figures are all quotes. Feel free to visit this page without being a Democrat.

Claims denial rates by leading California insurers, first six months of 2009:

• PacifiCare — 39.6 percent 
• Cigna — 32.7 percent 
• HealthNet — 30 percent 
• Kaiser Permanente — 28.3 percent 
• Blue Cross — 27.9 percent 
• Aetna — 6.4 percent

Democrat Hoyer on voting for the bill

No tax hikes, fully paid for or no vote from me. That sounds fair to me, really.

Meet the opposition

Rep. Jenkins of Kansas (who hasn’t read the bills) laughs at a single uninsured mother

Ok, now this is just cold.

How We’re Blowing it

Medicare pays four times the value to rent a motorized wheelchair than to buy it

Come on guys, what are you getting these at Rent-a-Center?

Bill Moyer Health Care and Human Rights

If we lose the health care debate, we lose it to cowards who use lies and fear to support big insurance companies while millions suffer. And we do it because we defended the details of policies to people who wouldn’t listen while we ignored human compassion and morals (that’s me, not Bill).

Meet the Opposition

It’s either political eugenics by the Democrats or a bullshit conspiracy theory from the Republicans

The RNC sent out a survey that implied they believe voting records could be used to discriminate on health care. While this conspiracy theory can only be the product of of an abundantly twisted imagination, I’m a big believer in our wildest fantasies telling us what we are capable of. Democrats have a wild fantasy of providing healthcare for millions of Americans, and Republicans have a wild fantasy of Nazi tactics, death panels, and discrimination based on political affiliation. You be the judge.

Michael Steele on the spot on NPR

Otherwise known as doing the dance around his own doublespeak. Steve Innskeep just won’t let up. Very amusing.

I enjoy how Michael Steele talks about creative interpretation from the left of things he says, while his side comes up with “Death Panels” out of end of life counseling. Funny thing is, the Democrats interpretation seems like far less of a stretch. Really this is worth listening to.

The rest of the town hall meeting with Barney Frank. This is freaking awesome

As good as stand-up.

How We’re Blowing it

The illegal immigrant conundrum

Obama says definitively “no health coverage for illegals”. I believe this is right. However, I believe in treating emergencies of anybody that walks in to an ER. Seems only humane. But the bill as it stands eliminated a call for proof of citizenship, and this opens up the system for abuse. The Republicans are calling this “subsidized health care for illegals.”

Of course, proof of citizenship would likely mean a call for some sort of national ID system, and that would be a socialist plot to enslave us all, and an infringement to our libertarian selves.

I wonder where in the debate foreign nationals here legally stand. In Japan and many other countries they are merely treated, but those are single payer systems that aren’t looking for commercial upkeep, and provide way better care than ours for less money, so what am I talking about?