Attention Real-Estate Buyers

I think that land within a 15 mile radius of a nuclear power plant is going to be a steal! Snatch it up! Have one in your own backyard!

Fighting For Your Right to Shovel Crap Down Your Gullet

Where in the constitution does it say government should promote the general welfare? Preamble? Oh, whatever.

Arguing that the U.S. food supply is 99 percent safe, House Republicans cut millions of dollars Thursday from the Food and Drug Administration’s budget, denying the agency money to implement landmark food safety laws approved by the last Congress.

Saying the cuts were needed to lower the national deficit, the House also reduced funding to the Agriculture Department’s food safety inspection service, which oversees meat, poultry and some egg products. And lawmakers chopped $832 million from an emergency feeding program for poor mothers, infants and children. Hunger groups said that change would deny emergency nutrition to about 325,000 mothers and children.

...“Do we believe that McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Safeway and Kraft Food and any brand name that you think of, that these people aren’t concerned about food safety?” Kingston said on the House floor. “The food supply in America is very safe because the private sector self-polices, because they have the highest motivation. They don’t want to be sued, they don’t want to go broke. They want their customers to be healthy and happy.”

Next on the agenda: blocking your ability to sue McDonalds and KFC and Safeway and Kraft Food. Then deregulating food companies so they can start using horsemeat and human flesh from industrial accidents again, like in the good old days. And getting the unions out, so we can start hiring less-skilled people for important production jobs.  And eliminating those troublesome truth in labeling laws!

Taking the broader view, it's pretty clear why the insurance companies love these guys so much.

Flu Away Home

What's been keeping me away this week, you're askin'. I'll tell you bucky. I was whacked with the flu last weekend, running a 100-degree-plus fever. The fever has subsided, and I've been crawling back to normalcy since Tuesday. My energy level is almost normal again, the aches have subsided, and the cough has gone from a dry scratch to a disgusiting phlemmy rattle.

Anyway, under a seige like this who has the energy for politics? Especially Noh theatre politics like this week. Republicans, who promised to repeal health care to people who don't understand what it is have made their grand empty gesture and will next have to explain that they really tried but didn't see the senate refusal to ratify the vote coming. Nor would they have conceived that Obama might veto such a repeal were it to reach him.They were blindsided! In the process they can demonize (hint that assasination would be a solution) Harry Reid and Obama, THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO WANT HEALTH CARE. They're holding you hostage, America! Meanwhile, OBAMA RAISED insurance rates!

I'm a little worked up! Better lay back for a while.

Quote of the Day 2: Sincere Good Wishes Edition

"We wish Carly Fiorina a speedy recovery and hope she is able to return to her normal schedule soon."

Barbara Boxer's campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski. I'm with her.

Coke Addicts Underserved in SF

This is just not cool, man.

Coca-Cola is out, and soy milk is now part of San Francisco's official city policy.

Under an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange are no longer allowed in vending machines on city property, although their diet counterparts are - up to a point.

It could be worse - when I first read this I thought it was a city-wide ban, not a city-property-wide ban. So it's both restrictive AND ineffective. I mean in practical terms, it means if you're serving jury duty and you want the hard stuff (straight Coca-Cola instead of Coke Zero) you'll have to bring your own or buy it from the cafeteria. Will it stop you from being fat? No. You'll stop being fat when you value your health over your taste buds. And get some exercise, for God's sake.

Still, it's a fairly easy law to enforce, and if people are really desperate for sugar-based soda, the vending machine folk will turn to Shasta, which is less expensive. I bet at least right winger trumpets this law as proof that Obama is Hitler! Check back in a day.

As If Polls Mattered

Americans HATE OBAMACARE!

Well it's trending good anyway.

When Will Harry Reid Unveil His Secret Health Care Bill?

Couple of hours ago, as it turns out.

The plus is that it's a filibuster-proof bill; that is as long as next week Lieberman doesn't get into an argument with this week Lieberman. The minus, of course, is that it sucks. It's a huge huge bill that makes what appear to be almost no changes to the current law.

There could be a hidden advantage here - when November comes along the Democrats can campaign on the meme that they had lots of CBO-approved plans to keep prices down but Republicans kept shooting them down because REPUBLICANS ARE IN THE POCKETS OF BIG INSURANCE. I don't know if Dems will use it, or if the voters will buy it, but there it is. Someone made this bill suck, and the Republicans were especially out front about stopping it from not sucking.

Can't wait for the vote! Then, I can't wait for the reconciliation!

Not Bothering With Sarah Palin Today

My quick survey of political topics this morning reveals two: Sarah Palin gave another laughable speech over the weekend and Congress sucessfully passed an version of the healthcare bill, with a public option but without government funding of any kind for abortions. The latter amendment was sponsored by a Democrat.

I have no more new to offer than Sarah does about Sarah, but the bill pleases me. Mostly because it completely belies the overheated rhetoric thrown at it by Republicans. “This bill is a wrecking ball to the entire economy,” from Rep Jack Kingston, (R, Georgia) is a typical example. If there is no government funding of a controversial medical procedure, I'm fine with that. As long as it's still legal. So hopefully, fingers crossed, the bill will go on its merry way, pass, and drive pundits to increasingly out-of-sync statements that will keep the party out of power until it calms down and starts governing again.

Metaphors Can Literally Kill You

HOST: Very quickly, Chairman Steele. The feeling in some circles is that this health care train has left the station with President at the wheel, and Republicans better jump on board.

STEELE: Well, I’m the cow on the tracks, and you’re going to have to stop that train to get this cow off the tracks and move forward.

(Michael Steele appearing on Fox News, h/t Think Progress)

1. Nobody is at the wheel of a train. You don't actually steer trains.

2. Michael Steele speaks the truth, metaphorically. Literally the role of Republicans is to block the progress that everybody wants. And also he's correct in assessing the balance of power between the two parties. One if a freight train, the other is a lone cow. And now that I think of it, you can't really train steers either.

However, getting back to the train - there are things called Cow Catchers on the front of trains, and they are shaped so that they scoop up cows and throw them aside! America didn't become a superpower by stopping the train for cows. It became one by recognizing that creatures too stupid, lazy and obstinate to stand in front of a moving train deserve what they get.

Love Your Insurance Company ***Updated***

Here's something to love them for - they're not jacking up your rates by covering fat, lazy babies.

GRAND JUNCTION — Alex Lange is a chubby, dimpled, healthy and happy 4-month-old.

But in the cold, calculating numbered charts of insurance companies, he is fat. That's why he is being turned down for health insurance. And that's why he is a weighty symbol of a problem in the health care reform debate.

Insurance companies can turn down people with pre-existing conditions who aren't covered in a group health care plan.

Alex's pre-existing condition — "obesity" — makes him a financial risk. Health insurance reform measures are trying to do away with such denials that come from a process called "underwriting."

"If health care reform occurs, underwriting will go away. We do it because everybody else in the industry does it," said Dr. Doug Speedie, medical director at Rocky Mountain Health Plans, the company that turned down Alex.

By the numbers, Alex is in the 99th percentile for height and weight for babies his age. Insurers don't take babies above the 95th percentile, no matter how healthy they are otherwise.

"I could understand if we could control what he's eating. But he's 4 months old. He's breast-feeding. We can't put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill," joked his frustrated father, Bernie Lange, a part-time news anchor at KKCO-TV in Grand Junction. "There is just something absurd about denying an infant."

Quit whining. If you cover that child, an insurance company shareholder might have to give up one of his cars. Is that what you want?

***Update*** My more-widely-read blogger pal WAMK points out that the people at Rocky Mountain Health Plans did an about-face before I posted, and now promise to cover all healthy babies, too fat or not. I'm not as comforted by this as he is. Why did they review the policy? Because they are trying to beat down the threat of the public option. Without the publicity and threat, I doubt we'd have the same result. More likely they'd cover babies two years from now only after tweaking the rules to disallow acne sufferers. AND raising rates again.

And more importantly, this result came about because of the threat of competition from a public option, which proves that it does exactly what proponents promise it will do - keep the insurance companies honest.

Great Scott, Mickey!

Forget about Obama's speech. Didn't see it. Instead, check this out!

NASA scientists have created an anti-gravity field that works at room temperature, which is a big Where's My Back to the Future Skateboard breakthrough. The only problem is that it only works on mice.

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have created a superconducting magnet that generates enough energy to lift small animals off the floor. The magnet pushes the water inside the animals up, making them fly. The amazing fact is that it works at room temperature—not the ultra-cooled down environments typical of these magnets—and it's large enough to make rodents to levitate.

The problem with the mice is that they panic, so they have to be sedated to remain calm enough to stay aloft. So if we have a big enough magnet and a mellow enough person, say Matthew McConaughey, human levitation is achievable.

Speaking of levitation, "According to CNN the percentage of American supporting reform proposals went from 53% before the speech to 67% after the speech. In addition, 56% of viewers had a "very positive" reaction to the speech." It's true the results are skewed because there were many more Democrats than Republicans questioned, but let's assume that the Republicans all hated it before and still hated it. Eric Cantor spent the whole time sending emails on his Blackberry; the only Republican who was listening was Rep Joe Wilson. Speech wasn't for these guys, who believe that Obama can't even prove that he was born. Speech was for the people who are going to vote on the bill.

Blue Cross, Red Shield

A lot of those right-wing talking points about the health reform bill cite problems that we're dealing with now with insurance. Republicans are asking us to get furious at the idea of health care rationing, government meddling in Medicare (?!), long waits in emergency rooms and doctor's offices.

So I'm wondering - what is the plan for fixing all this stuff when the reform plan crashes in flames? I mean, there's a hungry mob out there now that hates (HATES!!!!!!) the idea of health care rationing, and when they realize they're still stuck with Cigna deciding that their cancer treatments will cut into executive golf vacations, someone is gonna get hurt. What's the backup plan? Who's gonna fix the problem? Can't be Democrats, because Republicans would block their efforts. When it dawns on people that the only thing stopping us from getting our money's worth from the insurance companies is a phalanx of certain elected officials, then you're gonna see some really angry town halls.

And may I suggest that "deregulation" may not be the most popular answer in this case?

The Health Care Debate Is Actually Quite Sanguine

I've been hearing a lot about this and things like it - hate crimes against Democrats are actually all caused by Democrats disguising themselves as Republicans. You have the swastikas painted on a congressperson's headquarters, for example, or certain people shouting out nazi slogans at town hall meetings. All Democrats, makin' the Republicans look bad!

This is a fascinating talking point in light of the other one, that Americans are furious about health care reform. If it's all Democrats who are doing the shouting and vandalizing to make the Republicans look angry, then obviously NO ONE is furious. So let's get on with it and write a bill with the public option, shall we? Since nobody minds.

The Hated Public Option

Courtesy of the Rasmussen people:

Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called “public option” is removed. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 57% oppose the plan if it doesn't include a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

Last week, Rasmussen Reports tracking found that support for the Congressional plan was at 42%.

While the tracking question did not specifically mention the public option, it referred to the bill proposed by the president and congressional Democrats now working its way through Congress. All of the congressional committees that had passed reform legislation included a government health insurance plan. Therefore, it is reasonable to compare those results with the current polling to measure the potential impact of dropping the public option.

The most dramatic impact is a sharp decline in enthusiastic support. Without the public option, only nine percent (9%) Strongly support the legislation. The earlier poll found 26% Strongly in favor of it.

Italics mine. This is great news or bad news, depending on whether Congress is acting to please the voters or the special interest groups. I hope they want to please the voters, because all the insurance campaign money in the world won't get you reelected if voters hate you.

More Advice To Democratic Congresspeople

This whole "an attempt to kill your grandparents" thing is a problem. Though clearly it's based on a misinterpretation of one of the potential provisions in the law, probably the best thing to do would be to remove it. In fact, maybe we can put something in its place, like:

Under no circumstances will anyone over 65 be allowed to discuss treatment options with their doctors.

Clear and unambiguous. We could call it the Grassley Amendment! No matter what happens with this reform bill, there's enough people spooked by the notion that we outta put it out there in the current law.

Hey, it's not my idea, it's Sarah Palin's.

Advice to Democratic Congressmen

By September you will have solicted public opinion on the health care bills. I'd like to help you read those opinions.

It's a choice between the ones who agree with you, who are largely keeping silent; and they ones who are screaming incoherently, or enraged by things that aren't even in the bill, or are threatening to kill you. May I suggest that those last opinions can be sensibly ignored? If someone said "I think we should reconsider rolling back the tax cuts as a way to pay for the bill," you should pay attention to that. If they said "Obama isn't a citizen! Socialism! The tree of liberty!" then you shouldn't pay attention. Well, you should look into beefing up security.

Otherwise ask your Republican colleagues if they have any suggestions. Take their stony silence as a no and vote for Canadian-style health care.

Message Creep ***Updated***

Here's the link that links to some links and sublinks.

A cynic might say that the difference between Gates and Gladney is their political affiliation

If you don't read Michelle Malkin you may not be aware of Kenneth Gladney who was involved in a scuffle at a town hall meeting. Depending on who you read he was either knocked to the ground or savagely beaten to a pulp (a delayed-action pulp because he was walking around immediately after the event but he's in a wheelchair now) by union thugs. A cynic might say that he was actually worked over by RNC operatives after the event, with his permission.

This whole incident is a sign that Karl Rove has retired, because he'd have managed the message a lot better. For starters, Gladney, who is African-American, is talking about pressing hate-crime charges. So if he was beaten because he was black, then he wasn't beaten because he was against health care, right? And why was he beaten, instead of any of the other African-Americans attending? Perhaps the Republicans think that that they are one of the minorities covered under Hate Crime law; sadly, you have to arrange that sort of thing in advance. If it ain't in the law now, you can't put it in for Gladney. Planning, people!

More to the point, check this out.

Gladney did not address Saturday's crowd of about 200 people. His attorney, David Brown, however, read a prepared statement Gladney wrote. "A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too." Brown read. "This should never happen in this country."

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

Is this really what Republicans want? As system where your health care is dependent on the kindess of strangers?

***Update***: And a hilarious update at that. From the Washington Independent:

I just got off the phone with David Brian Brown, the St. Louis, Mo., lawyer who has appeared with Kenneth Gladney, the black man who claims he was beaten up by a bunch of Service Employees International Union members outside a town hall meeting in St. Louis. Gladney says he was just there innocently selling Gadsden flags — those flags with the coiled snake that say “Don’t Tread On Me” and became symbols of the recent GOP Tea Party protests... as Daily Kos diarist KevinNYC points out in his play-by-play of the event, there’s a big white guy in a white polo shirt yelling — “they attacked him!” The guy on the video looks strikingly like his lawyer, David Brown, who now says he was a witness to the event, so he can’t officially represent Gladney.

When I asked Brown, who was in a car with Gladney on their way to see Brown’s brother, who is going to be Gladney’s official lawyer, Brown said that there’s been lots of misinformation floating around online about this case.

For one, Brown said, contrary to recent reports... Gladney wasn’t laid off and has health insurance. “He’s just unemployed,” says Brown, and “has insurance through his wife.”

Although Brown initially identified Gladney as “a friend,” when I asked him what line of work Gladney is in, he had to go ask Gladney about that before he could report back to me that about a year ago, Gladney worked for an optical store. Brown said he thinks Gladney’s wife is a social worker, but he’s really not sure.

Meanwhile, though Gladney appears to be just fine in the video right after he was supposedly beaten up, he showed up the next day at a tea party event in a wheelchair. At the event, Bill Hennessy, the organizer of the St. Louis tea parties, asked the crowd to donate money to Gladney to help him pay for his injuries, despite the fact that he now says he has insurance. When I asked Brown about this, he said: “Well, who doesn’t need a donation? If people want to give him a donation because he’s injured and unemployed, that’s up to them.” Brown said Gladney has raised about $1,100 in donations so far.

So to summarize, Hennessy was, um, mistaken when he asked for donations to pay for Gladney's medical treatment. And Brown is Gladney's friend but he doesn't really know what Gladney or his wife does for a living. In any event he's not his lawyer. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Brown works for the RNC and concocted this whole publicity stunt on the spot, except I just did.

(h/t to WAMK for pointing me to the WI link)

Shona Holmes Might Have Been Killed By Canadian Health Care!

Or not. Just to catch up, who is Shona Holmes?

...an Ontario woman who claims she was forced by Ontario's health system to go to the United States for life-saving surgery for a brain tumour. She claims that in 2005 delays in access to treatment at home made it necessary to go to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and pay $97,000 for her care.

Yeah, she's all over the place, pointing out the tragically high mortality rates of Canadians, who are dropping like flies as they wait for their gangrene amputations. People who had heart attacks 5 years ago are still waiting for a checkup in Canada!

Then again...

On the Mayo Clinic's website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it's somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes' "brain tumour" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts."

There's no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it's a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks.

In Senator Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky, one out of three people under age 65 do not have any health insurance. They don't have to worry about wait times for hip or knee replacement or cancer surgery -- they can't get care. The media household income in Kentucky is $37,186 -- not quite enough for the $97,000 bill at the Mayo Clinic.

I usually don't quote editorials here, but I'm willing to go a little out of my way for Canadians, because they're more trustworthy than the rest of us.

Beating a Horse Which, While Not Dead, Is Accruing Crippling Hospital Debt While On Life Support

I've been having that universal health care argument over at WHERE ARE MY KEYS again. Great White Knight insists that the high number of uninsured people is misleading because so many of them are unemployed; and then most of them don't WANT insurance. He has friends who are saving the money they'd pay for insurance premiums and intend to use THAT for medical bills. Presumably, that's what everyone else is doing too.

So let me just reiterate my position here about the handful of poor people in the nation who AREN'T saving up and cannot afford health insurance. I know it's only a handful; and they are all poor because they want to be. But if there is some untoward epidemic or plague, who is going to get shots? The rich, because they can afford it. Who won't? The poor. The more people who can't get health care, the more to spread disease. Check out Africa some time. They don't have universal health care, they got plenty of poor people, and they're dying of AIDS in record numbers. And that's a non-airborne contagion.

Bird flu, typhoid, something new - the poor are going to kill you unless you protect them. More importantly, they're going to kill ME, and I'm not for that at all.

I (Cardiac) Huckabee

Oh, THIS is mature.

"Frankly, Michael Moore is an example of why the health care system costs so much in this country. He clearly is one of the reasons that we have a very expensive system. I know that from my own personal experience," said (Republican Presidential candidate Mike) Huckabee, who lost more than 110 pounds and became an avid runner after he was diagnosed with diabetes.
"I know how much more my health care cost when I didn't take care of myself than when I do take care of myself, not only in terms of doctor visits but regular diseases, illnesses, chronic things that come up, monthly prescription bills," Huckabee said. "All of those things have gone dramatically down since I've taken care of myself and worked to live a healthier lifestyle."

Huck. There are ways to grab a piece of a hit movie and use it for your own publicity. This isn't one of 'em. For one thing, it's beside the point - with Universal Health Care Michael Moore wouldn't have to tally how much extra it cost him to be overweight. For another, perhaps anticipating this line of attack, Moore has gone on a program of diet and exercise. You may notice he is bigger in the movie than he is on his contentious CNN appearances.

But the real no-no here is the favorite arrow in the RNC quiver, the ad-hominum attack. Republicans would always rather you discuss John Edwards' hair, Al Gore's car or Michael Moore's weight than poverty, the environment, or socialized medicine. Because they get creamed in the latter arenas and it throws off their opponents. I think we as a people are onto this trick now, but I'm probably being optimistic.

Bonus commenter points for examples of the left doing the same thing!