In his final words to Teddy Kennedy, Sen. John Kerry said it best in his memoriam: “sail on my friend, sail on.”

Today is the funeral of Ted Kennedy and as I listen to the television where various politicians and dignitaries give their accounts of how he touched their lives, I realize the extent of the battles that Kennedy fought and the kindness he gave not because it was his job or because he expected something in return but because of his humanity and great sense of obligation.  He was motivated by those less fortunate than himself.  Ted Kennedy displayed an insatiable desire to help those in need and make their life a little bit better than it was before he came around.

Primarily due to the overwhelming success of its patriarch Joseph Kennedy Sr., the Kennedy family lives a life of privilege. The children never want for anything. However, the Kennedys have never been accused of feeling entitled.  A Kennedy is more often credited with exhibiting the depth of empathy and compassion that a person might have who grew up with nothing and who survived only because of the kindness and generosity of others.  Ted Kennedy was no exception to this rule.

Having lived in Washington, DC for almost ten years now, I have an idea of how too many politicians and those connected to them work. What can you do for me mentality.  Ted Kennedy was a different kind of politician. Senator Kennedy was a public servant.  Many of his colleagues have recalled that Ted Kennedy’s first question to someone he perceived in need was how can I help? If someone needed help he was willing to give it even though the person was of no use to him politically. Perhaps current and former politicians should take a lesson from the life of the liberal lion of the Senate and ask themselves this: do you want to be remembered as a person consumed with self interest never motivated to help anyone less fortunate than yourself unless you can conceive of that person repaying the favor? Or do you want to be remembered and missed because of your compassion and humanity and the contributions you made not only to your family and friends but to mankind? What is that cause bigger than yourself? I bet you have never heard of a single person saying on his or her death bed, boy I wish I had gotten that corporation one more tax break or increased its profits by one more billion. 

One final thought for our former, current, and future political leaders. You are not entitled to your position or current economic situation any more than a homeless person on the street is entitled. Remember that your current success stems in great measure from the grace of those much less fortunate than yourself (voters) and in some cases the grace of someone more fortunate. Therefore, if there is a way that you as politicians, former politicians, and children therefrom can make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, whether they are those close to you or those not, remember Ted Kennedy and seize the opportunity.

In his own words about his brother Robert F. Kennedy after RFK’s 1968 assassination we believe that Ted Kennedy best describes himself:  Ted Kennedy was “a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, who saw suffering and tried to heal it, who saw war and tried to stop it.”  

May he rest in everlasting peace.

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com.

President Obama released this statement regarding the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy:

Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.

For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.

His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives — in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education’s promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me.

In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom.

His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.

For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.

Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has lost his battle with brain cancer and past away just before midnight on Tuesday in his home in Hyannis Port, Mass.  Sen. Kennedy was known as the “Liberal Lion” of the Senate.  He served over forty years in the Senate.  Sen. Kennedy was born in 1932 and was 77 years old.    Sen. Kennedy is survived by three children, two step children, his wife Victoria, his sister, and his grandchildren.  His family released the following statement:

“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port,” the statement said. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

Some may have missed the good news that came out regarding the good the the Obama administration has accomplished during its seven months in office.  Remember when the economy was on the brink of desaster in January?  Well we are seeing a few changes as a result of policies implemented by this administration.

• There has been a significant jump in home sales by 7.2 percent.  This is the largest monthly increase in ten years.  Analysts opine that the President’s tax breaks for first time home buyers contributed significantly.
• A slowing of job loss as indicated this month from 9.5 percent to 9.4 percent
• Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke’s forcast that the economy is on the verge of recovery
• The rise in the stock market by 150 points at close of business last Friday
• The success of the cash-for-clunkers program resulting in the sale of more cars during the short period that the program was in place than some dealers have seen in the last ten years of being in business.  More than 450,000 energy efficient cars were sold in the past few weeks.

President Obama will announce today that he will reappoint Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke to the Federal Reserve.

President Obama just said during a townhall meeting at the Democratic National Committee that “one of the options WILL be a public option.”

CITIZEN: The volunteers have gotten support from over 26,000 people. The debate is heating up, what’s the most compelling argument we can make for health reform?

PRESIDENT: The status quo is unsustainable. Even if you have private insurance, you may end up losing it because costs are going to continue to inflate and your employer may decide to drop it or you may start getting more taken out of your check. There will be an exchange, and it will be the individual’s choice.

One of the options WILL be a public option in the marketplace. 

Insurance companies won’t be able to deny people coverage under fine print for pre-existing coverage or because they are sick.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings….

UPDATE: A new poll shows 77 percent of the American people support a public option.  The new study by SurveyUSA  shows a one point increase from June.

Remember the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights that was passed a few months ago?  Well look for some changes to be implemented by your credit card companies starting today.  The bill mandates the following rules must go into effect today:

• You have a right to reject a rate increase
• You have 5 years to repay your balance at the current rate.  In other words, credit card companies cannot raise the rate on your current balance for five years.
• Companies must provide you 45-day advance notice before a rate increase
• Bills must be mailed 21 days before they are due

The major changes with the most protections under the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights do not go into effect until February. 

Some of the down sides of the changes is that your credit card company may now start charging you an annual fee to recoup the price gouging profits that it will no longer receive.  In addition, the credit card industry has threatened that it will be harder for consumers to get a card, it will raise interest rates, and risky borrowers may be out of luck. 

Further, the credit card industry has made blocking the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency its “number 1 priority.”  The agency will protect consumers from abusive, deceptive, unfair, and harmful practices by the financial industry.  Throughout this month (August) industry insiders are on the hill and lobbying lawmakers in a major push to prevent the creation of the consumer protection agency.  The credit industry has accumulated millions and millions of dollars to instigate its campaign against increased regulation that it fears will result in a reduction of profits.  Don’t let them get away with it.

It is no wonder that the polls are reflecting a small decrease in support for health care reform.  The GOP has been mildly successful in its misinformation campaign.  See the results of the latest NBC poll.  The majority of the 47% of survey takers who do not support the public option watches Fox News and believe the following:

• The plans would give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants
• Health care reform would lead to a government takeover of the health system
• That taxpayer dollars would be used to pay for abortions
• forty-five percent believe that reform would result in the government making decisions about when the elderly would stop receiving health care. 

None of the above allegations are true but the majority of the people who do not support health care reform believe that the above allegations are true even though they have been proven false by nonpartisan fact-checkers repeatedly.

UPDATE:  All other polls show much higher support for the public option. 

Support for public option

• 68% New York Times & CBS News
• 62% Quinnipiac
• 56% Time
• 54% Washington Post & ABC

Also, the pollster who did the NBC poll that showed only 47% support has heavy ties with the health insurance industry and has been criticized with how it phrased the “public option” question.  Rasmussen polling, known for its right leaning Fox News promoting tendencies, shows that support for a health reform bill plummets without a public option.

Sen. Kent Conrad has been in the news quite a bit lately pushing a national/regional cooperative/s as an alternative to the public option.  Conrad cites the Washington state GroupHealth cooperative as his primary example of how his proposal would be successful.  Well Sen. Conrad it has taken GroupHealth 60 years to see success.  Americans can’t wait that long.  Just to put this into context that means over a million more Americans without health insurance will die while we’re waiting for Conrad’s plan to kick in if it actually kicks in.  And that is a conservative estimate because 60 years is the estimate for a single state.  Add 49 more states and a few territories to the mix and see how the numbers turn out.   Further, because the insurance companies will continue to have no competition during the build up of Conrad’s coops the price of health care will continue to sky-rocket and America should be pretty much bankrupt by the time Conrad’s plan is up and running.

A few other questions for Sen. Conrad:

1. How does a coop incentivize providers, without the benefit of government subsidies, to sign up with it instead of big insurance which has substantially more resources than a non-profit cooperative whose main objective is making health care affordable?  Not to mention the ingrained contractual relationships that private insurance already has with such providers that prevent those providers from contracting with other insurers (especially nonprofits) and have been in place for decades.
2. How long will it take a new nonprofit cooperative to get enough members to have an effect on health care costs?  In other words what is the plan to get enough patients to enroll in the new program as well as enough physicians and hospitals to participate?  What are the economies of scale?   Experts say that such an endeavor is a very long and arduous process requiring more than the 60 years that it took a single state like Washington to see some success.
3. How do you respond to the charge by experts that the mere $6 billion dollars in seed money that the government would provide to your coop/s  is grossly deficient for getting such a program started?  There are significant barriers to entry to the insurance industry which is why we have only a few private companies cotrolling the entire industry today.
4. What are the price containment elements of your coop plan?  How do we decrease health care cost under your plan when big insurance is still pulling the strings?
5. You claim that your cooperative is a compromise to achieve a bipartisan bill.  How do you respond to prominent GOP senate and house members who have said as late as yesterday that they will not support a cooperative either?

It appears that the only people that will not be harmed by your coop alternative Sen. Conrad are the GOP and the insurance companies that contributed to both yourself and the GOP significantly during the last couple of years.

UPDATE:       A Q&A regarding the viability of coops between Marc Ambinder and  Julius Hobson, a former top lobbyist for the American Medical Association and now a policy adviser at Bryan Cave, LLC in Washington. (The firm works with a variety of health care clients.)

Eugene writes about health care reform sans public option.

Without that option, what Obama now calls “health insurance reform” still would be better than no reform at all. But frankly it’s becoming hard to tell. So many genuine reforms have been taken off the table — fully universal coverage, the ability to negotiate prices with the drug companies — that expectations are ratcheted down almost daily.

Giving up the public option would send many of Obama’s progressive supporters into apoplexy, yet the administration has sent clear signals that this is the path of less resistance it’s prepared to take.

“The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health-care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it,” Obama said Saturday at a town hall in Grand Junction, Colo. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, told CNN that a public option is “not the essential element” of comprehensive reform.

But what is the “essential element”? Where, if anywhere, does Obama draw a line in the sand? For reform to be meaningful, there must be some components that a final package absolutely should include. What on Earth might they be?

See remainder of article here.

We have a few questions about the national/regional co-op exchange that Sen. Baucus and company are proposing.  How will such an exchange work and how will it be different from what we have now?  Now we have lack of competition within the insurance industry with around six insurance companies dominating the market.  How does putting those same insurance companies in a national/regional exchange prevent them from raising their prices even more?  Why does such ”reform” mean anything other than providing the insurance companies with 47 million more captive customers who are subject to the same price hikes that most customers are experiencing now?   Sen. Conrad explained the co-op exchange this way:

[A co-op exchange] would be owned and organized by its members — [the co-op]would negotiate rates with providers and would meet the same licensing and regulatory requirements as private insurers.

“I tried to come up with something that is not government-controlled, is a competitive delivery model, but nonprofit,” Conrad said. “It would be on a level playing field with everybody else with, with a different ownership structure.”

The New York Times describes the co-op this way:

….one thing that it’s important to get straight from the beginning is the difference between insurance co-ops and health insurance purchasing co-ops. There was a real movement in the 1990s to purchase insurance through co-ops. Those are similar to the exchanges that are being proposed. A few of them got going. They were not remarkably successfully, either. The idea was that consumers bargain with insurance companies to buy insurance. They’re not insurance providers themselves.

So what we’re talking about are insurance co-ops that would function as insurers themselves.

The argument I make is that it’s really hard to start an insurance company. You don’t just get a bunch of people together and say, “We’re going to start an insurance co-op.” The biggest problem is coming up with a network. You have to find doctors and hospitals and negotiate contracts. Most are already locked up by the dominant insurers. They’re not going to give you — a tiny co-op — a better deal. That’s assuming they’ll deal with you at all. The alternative would be to rent a network, but you’re basically buying your product from your competitor. There’s no way you’ll get a good deal there, either.

Whether the proposal is for an insurance coop or an insurance purchasing coop how is this reform of the health insurance industry again?  In terms of an insurance coop where the coop is the actual insurer please explain why a provider would be incentivized to offer the coop lower prices when it would result in significantly less profits than if it sold the same package to a private insurance company?  In terms of an insurance purchasing coop, Read the rest of this entry »

Well it appears that Mrs. Katy Abram, the self proclaimed “sleeping giant” from Sen. Arnel Specter’s Lebanon, PA town hall meeting, who has all of a sudden been awakened is a bit more schooled on the lunacy of the far right than she claims.  Abram made the statement  “until now I’ve had no interest in politics…(paraphrase).” Well that’s a lie.  Mrs. Abram is a big fan of Glenn Beck and has been an organizing member for conservatives since 2006.   Abram also organized the lunatic fringe protests at Arnel Specter’s Lebanon town hall.  It did seem awfully peculiar that the house wife, just recently interested in politics, would be so diligent about video taping a town hall meeting that she decided to attend for the first time.  Not only has Mrs. Abram been a member of Beck’s 9-12 project since 2006 but she is also a huge fan of Sean Hannity as indicated by her Amazon review of Hannity’s  book that she wrote in 2004.  When Mrs. Abram was asked why now has she opened her eyes to politics when we have lived through 9/11, the Iraq war, and trillions in war spending by the Bush administration?   She responded that neither event really phased her because we are always at war.  Didn’t phase her?   Abram is an ORGANIZING member of Glenn Beck’s 9-12 project where the mission of the group is:

The 9-12 project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created.

In case you missed it, the group wants us to return to where we were the day after 9/11.  A winger in “typical housewife” clothing.  Mrs. Katy Abram is a shrewd operator with a background in media.  She managed to get air time on all the prime time cable networks by portraying herself as a formerly disinterested housewife who has just been awaken to politics even though she has been involved with the conservative right wing  for at least four years.  See her own words from Amazon review of Hannity’s book below:

Still a conservative despite the $, March 22, 2004

First and foremost I am a conservative who has seen the light after working a number of years in the liberal television media. While working in television I didn’t see it. I didn’t see the liberal workings because I was a part of it. After leaving to become a stay at home mom I see time after time how much my former counterparts spin everything. As a result I have returned to my original God given roots of conservativism. (My parents are so proud). I digress. To the last individual who stated only the rich are conservative…well let me educate you. I personally have NEVER made over $35,000. My husband is making in the mid $50′s…well looky here someone who is a conservative who makes less than your liberal paycheck. Amazing to think that someone so poor could be a conservative. 

Anyhow, I bought Sean’s book this weekend and it again has stirred the fire in my belly. I absolutely love this book. Sean doesn’t skirt around the issues with a song and dance of rhetoric. He shows CLEARLY and DISTINCTLY how the left left their minds in the gutter. Their minds are fogged with the rantings of lunatics. They have seen clear proof of the difference of good and evil in the world and are still either oblivious to it or truly choose to turn a blind eye in hopes for recovering the White House.
Sean you have truly outdone yourself. Keep up the great work! This is truly a work of love and dedication.

Well “looky here,” it appears that Katy “[saw] the light” back in 2004.

A truer word has never been said.  Why are the town hall meetings attracting the lunatic fringe?  Because there are segments of the right and a few on the left who are livid that Barack Obama is president.  And regardless of what Obama proposes even if it was the brain child of a GOP congressman, “living will”  or what is being unconscionably smeared by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin as “death panels,” they will oppose it because they have an audience and a venue and it’s a suggestion by the President.  Did we mention that both Palin and Gingrich proposed and supported “advance directives” or “death panels” during their time in office? 

Most people have had run ins with an insurance company and have had to jump through hoops to get something covered.  We would guess that the majority of those protesting against health care reform have also had difficulties if they’ve ever tried to file a claim with their insurance company.  Yet they argue that by making insurance companies more accountable and competitive smacks of socialism.  Lets test this hypothesis with a real life example.  We have Fedex and UPS competing with the U.S. Postal Service yet we have not slipped into socialism nor has Fedex and UPS gone out of business.   However, UPS and Fedex cannot charge $150 to send a letter overnight to a sister state because the Post Office offers a much cheaper alternative.  What is the result of a public run alternative?  A cheaper price to overnight a letter.  We do not have such checks on the health insurance industry.  What we do have are regional health insurance monopolies.  Why would anyone argue against such logic and obvious self benefit unless they are being disingenuous about their true motivations.  There is a segment of the right that is very upset that we have a Democrat as president and will not be happy until a Republican is in the White House.  There are fringe segments of the right and left who are livid that we have an African-American as President and will not be happy unless he fails so as to stop this runaway train of equality.  These same people continue to question whether President Obama was born in this United States and continue to insist that he is a Muslim.  The problem is that those who rarely pay attention to politics may be influenced or swayed by such lunatic antics so its up to the informed citizenry to drown out the loons.  Hence the reason for this post.  See a portion of Paul Krugman’s Op-Ed below

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

Right now, the charge that’s gaining the most traction is the claim that health care reform will create “death panels” (in Sarah Palin’s words) that will shuffle the elderly and others off to an early grave. It’s a complete fabrication, of course. The provision requiring that Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling was introduced by Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican — yes, Republican — of Georgia, who says that it’s “nuts” to claim that it has anything to do with euthanasia.

John Mackey, the CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods, penned an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal titled: “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.“  Referring to health care reform as “ObamaCare” is a hint as to which way this article is headed.  However, given the large segment of Mackey’s Whole Foods target market that are progressive minded liberals who care about health and the enviroment this was probably not a sound business move on his part.  Left leaning progressives are already rallying to boycott Whole Foods.  There are now about 2,500 people who’ve joined a Facebook group dedicated to boycotting the grocer.  If Mackey thinks he is untouchable he needs to talk to Glenn Beck.  Several corporations have pulled their ad dollars from Beck’s program after he made offensive and extremist hate speech remarks about the President and Nancy Pelosi. 

Mackey’s self-serving piece offers as his solution to health care reform that Americans eat healthier food, organic preferably, exercise, and make healthier lifestyle choices. 

“Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices”.,,,, CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey

Who knew???  Who knew that the daughter who has a history of breast cancer in her family could prevent its occurrence simply by exercising and eating an apple a day?   Who knew that the son who inherited altzheimers only needed to eat organic blueberries to prevent its onset.  Don’t get me wrong,  I’m all for preventative health care and lifestyle choices both of which are a significant part of the bills currently being proposed by the House and the Senate but that alone will not make a dent in health care costs?  Why?  Because patients need to seek out a doctor for advice as to what preventative measures should be taken?  In other words there needs to be an ongoing doctor-patient relationship.   Such patients will not seek that advice if they cannot afford it.  Further, a working mom holding three jobs just to tread water cannot afford an over-priced, two dollar, organic piece of fruit.  It is not a reality in her world.  A trip into the real world where a family of four is living on $17,000 a year would do Mr. Mackey good. 

The Whole Foods CEO and co-founder also advocates the following as his solution to the health care crisis:

• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). Free market health care….that worked so well for the financial industry.
• Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Tax benefits for people paying for their own health insurance is a good plan that can be offered along side the public option.
• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.  Does not decrease the cost of health care but allows large insurance companies to become larger. Besides, a public option accomplishes more competition, lower cost, larger risk market place, with the added benefit of preventing more insurance company monopolies.  Also, competing across state lines does not work because of risk selection.  Everyone would buy health insurance from the low price states which would result in higher risk for the insurance company thereby resulting in higher premiums for customers which defeats the purpose of lowering health care cost. Not to mention that some states are healthier and has less expensive health care than other states thereby resulting in less risk for the insurance company.  For example, there may be more risk providing insurance to someone in Mississippi, the state with the nation’s highest obesity rate, than in Washington state, one of the healthiest states in the nation.  The increased risk is based on the different lifestyles and eating habits of customers of the two states.
• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.  Yes, I’m sure that without a mandate all the insurance companies will be rushing to cover all the expensive procedures that eat into their profits.  Such companies are quite benevolent that way.  Lets see, a choice between the patient’s well being and profits with big insurance as the decider…give me a break.  If we did not have regulatory cost ceilings for certain procedures the death rate for those WITH insurance would be much higher.
• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.  Already proven not to reduce health care cost…see yesterday’s post.
• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost.  Wow, who knew that if the unemployed, uninsured, and underinsured just knew how much health care cost they wouldn’t seek treatment thereby saving loads of cash.  Perhaps they would hold out even longer and just go ahead and die thereby inconveniencing Mr. Mackey as little as possible.
• Enact Medicare reform.  Brilliant Sherlock, it’s already being proposed by the House and the Senate.
• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Lets rely on the goodness of people like Mackey who has concluded that only rich people deserve health care and those who are unfortunate enough to lose their job, change jobs, have a prexisting condition, or develop an unexpected serious illness and are dropped from their insurance company must be damned to a short life.  Is the reason we have thousands of people dying each month from curable and preventable deseases due to people like Mackey’s generosity?

Mr. Mackey goes into the same Read the rest of this entry »

There was an incident at Sen. Claire McCaskill’s health care town hall meeting on Tuesday where an African-American  woman, Maxine Johnson, and a couple of her friends were peacefully holding up a picture of Rosa Parks reading “First Lady of Civil Rights” during the meeting.   Signs were not allowed at the meeting.  After being berated and booed by the crowd the women rolled the posters up and put them away.  A journalist then came over to one of the African-American women, Johnson, and asked to see the poster.  Johnson rolled out the poster on the seat in front of her.  While doing this, a Caucasian man, James Winfrey, walked across the six feet isle and grabbed the poster, crumpled it up, and threw it on the ground.  What did the main stream media show, a picture of a full-figured black woman yelling and screaming as she is being escorted from the building with no explanation as to why.  The man, Winfrey, was reportedly ARRESTED for assault!   Yet the only scene that the main stream media ran on a loop on Tuesday under the heading of something like “town hall brawling” was the African-American woman being dragged from the auditorium by THREE, count them, THREE policeman.  Three policemen needed to escort one woman from a building??  While only one officer escorted the man from the building and he was the aggressor.  MSM did not bother to show how the situation came to past and the woman was rightly upset or that the man was also escorted from the building and had been arrested while the woman had not been.  No, corporate media only showed the AA woman being escorted out of the building visibly upset.  See the video below.  UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

The cherry on the pudding is that when Sen. McCaskill tried to explain to the entire group what had ACTUALLY happened she was booed so she stopped in the middle of the explanation in an effort to keep the peace.  The Senator instead ended with  “the bottom line is that we had two people who got involved and shouldn’t of.”

Statement by Maxine Johnson:

Maxine Johnson:  When I sat down I put my sign in the chair in front of me. It was rolled up. And the reporter kind of, news reporter crawled over there, she was standing up and she asked could she take a picture of the sign. We unrolled the sign laying down in the chair. And she was taking a picture of Rosa Parks. This man comes out of the crowd, snatch my sign, I stood up, they said he pushed me. I don’t remember anything ’cause you know by that time my adrenaline going everywhere…All I’m thinking about is getting my sign back. I got up in…to proceed, go get my sign back. ‘Cause he was crumbling it up. I said, “Give my sign back!” When I said that, next thing I know I had four police officers on me and one on him. I’m the victim here, [laugh] you know. And then as I say, “I’m pressing charges!”…I said, “Obama, Obama!”  So, you know what, you know like I said Rosa Parks fought for our freedom back then, now I’m fighting for our freedom now…So we’re fighting for the next generation…

Senator Claire McCaskill made a salient point during her town hall meeting in Missouri yesterday.  Sen. McCaskill first acknowledged how the state of Missouri accomplished aggressive tort reform during the last few years.  McCaskill then asked the audience how many of their health care premiums dropped in the the last few years since such aggressive reform took place…..crickets, crickets, crickets.  Not a single person raised his/her hand.  Why?  Because this is another myth being offered by the GOP as the panacea for health care reform and to promote its bankrupt agenda.  Just put limits on malpractice recovery by patients and insurance companies will lower malpractice insurance for doctors and the savings will trickle down to the patients.  Been there, done that, didn’t work. 

This is the “HHS data” claim that was debunked:  “[trial lawyers] lawsuit feeding frenzy costs every American household up to $1,200 a year in higher medical bills.”

Although the ad cites “HHS data” (referring to the federal Department of Health and Human Services), it really rests mainly on a nine-year-old study by two Stanford University scholars, which is virtually the such study to find evidence of major costs from ”defensive medicine.”  The 1996 Stanford study concluded that caps on damage awards could reduce overall health care costs by 5% to 9%, but it was based only on a study of heart patients who were hospitalized. AHIP and others cite this as evidence of a 5% to 9% increase across the entire health care system. However, virtually all other studies of defensive medicine have found no such thing.

Two nonpartisan agencies of Congress have examined the question. In 2004 the Congressional Budget Office found “no evidence that restrictions on tort liability reduce medical spending.” And in 1999 the Governmental Accountability Office evaluated the study and said that the evidence presented was too narrow for estimating the overall costs of defensive medicine.

CBO concluded that “the evidence available to date does not make a strong case that restricting malpractice liability would have a significant effect, either positive or negative, on economic efficiency.” And the earlier GAO report said of the Stanford study:

• Because this study was focused on only one condition and on a hospital setting, it cannot be extrapolated to the larger practice of medicine. Given the limited evidence, reliable cost savings estimates cannot be developed.

See articles at factcheck.org here and here.  Or how about McAllen, Texas?  Texas passed a very tough tort reform law capping  malpractice damage awards to 250k  thereby reducing malpractice lawsuits to practically zero.  How did that affect health care costs in McAllen you ask?   McAllen’s health care costs sky rocketed above the national average by an outrageous $10,000 per person to make McAllen the most expensive place for health care in the country.  See article here.

PRINCETON, NJ — From the time Barack Obama took office as president until the end of June, 63% of Americans, on average, approved of the job he was doing. The breakdown of his half-year approval ratings at the state level shows that Obama’s approval rating was above 50% in all but two states, Wyoming and Alaska. His highest approval ratings were in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Vermont, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

The White House has just released truth telling 2.0 to combat all the smears, untruths, and outright distortions being circulated about the Health Care Reform bill.

Dear Friend,

Anyone that’s watched the news in the past few days knows that health insurance reform is a hot topic — and that rumors and scare tactics have only increased as more people engage with the issue. Given a lot of the outrageous claims floating around, it’s time to make sure everyone knows the facts about the security and stability you get with health insurance reform.

That’s why we’ve launched a new online resource — WhiteHouse.gov/RealityCheck — to help you separate fact from fiction and share the truth about health insurance reform.

Check it out here.

A couple of months ago Sen. John McCain begrudgingly participated in a Hispanic business round table where he was reported by those who attended to be snarly and grudge holding.  So much so that when he was asked about immigration reform McCain angrily responded “you people made your choice” referring to the 2008 presidential election.  Still angry much??  It may be that McCain took a certain amount of satisfaction in not voting for Justice Sotomayor to be confirmed given that  Hispanics predominately supported Barack Obama for President.  McCain has said “elections have consequences.”  One of the consequences is that the President should be given the utmost deference with respect to his Supreme Court nominees.  McCain seemed to be following his professed “elections have consequences” policy when he voted in support of  President Clinton’s nominee Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  As for yesterday’s vote against Sotomayor, given McCain’s history and temperament it would not be surprising to learn that this was intended as a jab to the Hispanic community.  However, and in fairness, McCain also voted against Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. 

What is perplexing is that McCain is up for a pretty tough re-election campaign in Arizona which has a very large Hispanic population.  One would think that he would try to curry favor within the Hispanic community rather than risk its wrath.