Barack Obama: Shitty Bowler

Lord of the Rings

He can keep the ring…

Big Meds and Big Insurance Spend $17 MILLION a Day to Influence Congress

B’Man: When the corrupt Congresspeople get their biggest contributions from Big Health (to a tune of $17,000,000/Day), you should not expect any changes to our healthcare fiasco we are dealing with.

$17 Million a Day to Influence Congress

Health interests dole out the dough to get their way

By Trudy Lieberman
Wed 16 Apr 2008 01:22 PM

On Bill Moyers Journal Friday night, David Beckmann, who heads the hunger advocacy group Bread for the World, recalled his visit with Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. Reid told Beckmann, “Look, I’ve been here thirty-five years. I think the two best organized interests in the United States are the insurance companies and the commodity groups,” meaning the people who produce corn, soybeans, etc. Reid said the obvious—that these special interests have very powerful friends on both sides of the aisle and it would be difficult to make changes in the commodity system that Beckmann was hoping for. Reid might well have added that it is also going to be really hard to change the American way of health care, a fact of life that the press is yet to truly illuminate.

A glance at what health insurers spent in the past year to get their way with lawmakers—mostly on one key issue—shows why. That issue may not be as sexy as the latest candidate gaffe, but it’s far more important. It is the question of continuing overpayments to insurance companies for their role in private Medicare Advantage plans.

A quick refresher: Medicare recipients can get their benefits from either traditional Medicare or from private Medicare Advantage plans, which in turn are paid by the government to provide the benefits. Last year the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPac), a neutral outfit that advises Congress, said that Medicare was paying sellers of these plans on average 12 percent more than it cost to provide the same benefits under traditional Medicare; it paid sellers of a special type of plan called private-fee-for-service plans 19 percent more. So a middleman—the insurance company—is getting a large cut. And for what, really? This year MedPac says the overpayments are 13 percent and 17 percent. And what is worse: the commission says these overpayments contribute to Medicare’s worsening long-term financial problem.

The insurance companies, of course, think the system is just fine, and they spent heavily to keep the status quo. Health Plan Week, an insurance industry trade pub, took a hard look, revealing that overall health insurance payments to lobbyists soared last year and are likely to grow again in the next couple of years as health reform becomes the biggest issue. A large percentage of that money, the magazine found, was focused on the Medicare Advantage issue, which was front and center last year. Analyzing disclosure forms from the Senate’s public records office, Health Plan Week found that fifteen health plans paid lobbyists more than $22 million in 2007, up from $18 million in 2006, a hefty chunk of change by any measure. WellCare Health Plans, a big seller of Medicare Advantage products that has gotten in trouble with regulators for its questionable sales practices, quadrupled its spending to $320,000 and paid half of that amount to the Washington law firm to plead its case on Medicare issues. Health Net and Tufts Health Plan more than doubled their spending, while insurance biggies like CIGNA and UnitedHealth Group substantially increased their lobbying budgets. Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans spent nearly $10 million.

The Health Plan Week story is instructive. It shows what money can buy. Given the millions that insurers spent, it’s hardly surprising that attempts last year to get rid of the overpayments failed. Meanwhile, predictions of even greater spending this year and next should prompt journalists to closely watch the Medicare Advantage story.

A press release just issued by the Center for Responsive Politics further reinforces the money and health care story. Its message: Special interests spent $17 million for every day Congress was in session, and the drug industry spent most of all, paying lobbyists 25 percent more than they did last year. Did Harry Reid forget to mention them? Drug companies spent some $227 million on lobbying activities. The insurance industry was right behind with $138 million, and not far down was the hospital and nursing home industry, which spent some $91 million. When the Center pulled apart spending by organization, Pharma, the American Medical Association, and the American Hospital Association ranked three, four, and five on its list of top spenders. It’s too bad that the Center’s latest numbers haven’t gotten more press. For they, too show, the rocky path ahead for health reform.

It’s easy for reporters and editors to dismiss yet another press release about gobs of money thrown at politicians and lobbyists. We’ve seen that before, they say; what else is new? And it’s easy to cop out and blame readers for stumbling over the big numbers anyway. But the big numbers tell a big story. It’s crucial to remind the public of the intersection of money, lobbyists, Congress, and the presidential candidates. “It’s a constitutional right to petition your government, but the average citizen is not doing this petitioning,” says Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. “The average person’s lobbyist is the elected official sent to Washington.” But, he adds, “Those officials are listening to the outsiders who are doing the petitioning.” The Constitution may guarantee lobbying, but it doesn’t say Congress has to listen to big money. The press needs to shine a light on just who is listening to whom.

B’Man: Oh, but then the media would have to stop its complicity in ravaging of Americans. Good luck with that.

There is but one clear answer and that is to cut the head off the middle man that serves no real purpose and is ONLY set up to make profits off the backs of Americans… the Insurance Companies. $.31 of every dollar spent on health related expenses is for the insurance companies’ operating expenditures (which are far higher than Medicare/Medicaid’s costs), profits and huge bonuses.

We need, no REQUIRE, a single payer, NOT-FOR-PROFIT healthcare system… just like most of the 36 better healthcare systems above us.

America #37!

 

McCain: PTSD or Pumphead?

Invasion of the Pumpheads!

by Dave Lindorff     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

 

Is America at the mercy of an invasion of the pumpheads?

The bizarre behavior of Bill Clinton during this campaign season, which has seen this once smooth-talking and politically uber-sophisticated campaigner repeatedly stick a foot in his mouth and undermine his wife’s struggling campaign, raises the issue of whether he is suffering from postperfusion syndrome—a now recognized cognitive impairment common in patients who have undergone heart bypass surgery.

Referred to in hospital jargon as “pumphead syndrome,” the condition, thought to be caused by debris and bubbles that are created and released into the bloodstream by artificial pumps used to circulate blood while hearts are being operated on—material that can block blood flow in smaller vessels in the brain, causing neurological damage–this recognized condition has been demonstrated in some studies to lead to significant cognitive impairment that can show up in as many as 42 percent of heart surgery patients even as long as five years after surgery.

At least in Clinton’s case, if he is a “pumphead,” the only damage he can do is to his wife’s campaign. He is no longer president or commander in chief. (Well, let me take that back. If she were elected, he could create havoc as First Spouse and chief pillow talker, but let’s not even go there!)

But what about Cheney, a man who has had five, count ‘em, five heart surgeries, each of which offered a 42% chance of causing permanent cognitive impairment? No wonder there are reports that this bizarre, eternally snarling, heavy drinking friend shooter is said to hum to himself loudly and tunelessly in the stall of the White House men’s room!

If we consider the likelihood that the man widely seen as the power in this administration is a pumphead, and that Bush himself, who spent a long time as a drunk and a cokehead (talk about the potential for, not to mention the clear evidence of mental impairment!), we are left with the almost inevitable conclusion that we have been led for the past two terms by a pair brain-damaged men—and that’s not even counting the members of the cabinet and National Security Council, the medical histories of whom we know nothing. Given the advanced age of most of the team, it’s a fair bet that a number of them have had heart surgery too.

Call it “Invasion of the Pumpheads!”

Certainly not everyone who undergoes heart surgery and gets put temporarily on a pump ends up mentally deficient, but the prevalence of the problem sounds to me like a pretty good reason to demand full medical disclosure from all candidates for higher office, and not just for president and vice president, but for cabinet posts too—and judgeships.

For starters, Republican presidential presumptive nominee John McCain, 71 and a known cancer survivor, has not released his medical records. That suspicious failure of candor in a man who has already run for president once, should tell us something right away. His behavior places him squarely in the pumphead suspicion category, especially given that the guy repeatedly fails to recognize the difference between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq, and thinks that the Iranians—nearly all Shia—are backing Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group that is so anti-Iran that they are publicly calling on the US to attack that country! Even if he hasn’t had heart surgery, if he were elected and took office at age 72, he’d be the oldest president in history, and his prognosis for making it through one, much less two terms in one of the world’s most stressful jobs without having a heart attack seem slim.

Not that seemingly intelligent presidents haven’t been disastrous or haven’t made terrible decisions (think Nixon, Kennedy, Hoover and Wilson). But we’ve just endured two terms of a president with some kind of mental impairment with catastrophic results, and we had one in the 1980s with Alzheimer-afflicted Ronald Reagan, which set the nation on its course to bankruptcy. We certainly don’t need yet a third president of limited mental ability. It’s almost like we’re institutionalizing the concept.
____________________
DAVE LINDORFF is an investigative journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition. His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

B’Man’s Blog Finally Recognized For What It Is

My Award

I accept this award with dignity and honor.

As The Military Industrial Complex Profits Soar… REAL Jobs Are Lost

Layoffs hit hard across Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia

By: Cliff Hightower

…Companies across Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia like Huber Engineered Woods; Whirlpool in Cleveland, Tenn.; and Mount Vernon Mills in Trion, Ga., have laid off hundreds of workers in the last three months, federal records show.

Even federal statistics might not tell the whole story because industries or businesses that employ 50 people or fewer are not mandated to report layoffs, officials said.

“You can go into some of the small businesses in Dalton and see that their jobs are reduced,” said Kathy Williams, employer marketing representative for the Georgia Department of Labor in Dalton, Ga. “People are trying to do with the minimal.”

Most of those layoffs have occurred in industries that deal with the housing market, records show. Slumping home construction has lessened demand for wallboard, carpet, appliances and other products, experts said.

Other losses came in the textile industry, where jobs have been moving overseas for years to take advantage of lower labor costs.

UNEMPLOYMENT RISING

Unemployment rates have risen over the last year and in some counties have almost doubled from the previous year, records show.

The unemployment rate for Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties rose from 3.5 percent in March 2007 to 6.5 percent in March 2008, said Patrick Todd, labor market analyst for the Tennessee Department of Labor’s Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Chattanooga MSA comprises those Georgia counties plus Hamilton, Marion and Sequatchie counties in Southeast Tennessee.

Unemployment in Whitfield County, Ga., went from 4.3 percent in March 2007 to 6.3 percent this March, federal records show.

March jobless rates jumped in McMinn County, Tenn., to 7.9 percent, up from 5.1 percent the previous year. In Meigs County, Tenn., the rate rose from 6.5 percent to 8.1 percent in the same period.

In Sequatchie County, Tenn., March jobless rates rose from 6.6 percent to 7.8 percent.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of counties are higher than a year ago,” said Larry Green, labor market analyst for the Tennessee Department of Labor. “Everybody is having trouble in manufacturing across the board.”

In McMinn County, Collins & Aikman, a company that sewed automobile upholstery, laid off almost 500 workers last year, records show. Whirlpool laid off 355 employees in Cleveland, Tenn., last month, and Mohawk Industries in Dalton told 66 workers in February they were no longer employed, records show.

Layoffs in smaller counties can be a shock to the entire community, Mr. Green said.

“There’s a lot of counties solely dependent on one or two manufacturers, and if they close, they are in trouble,” he said.

Jack Hammontree, director of the McMinn Economic Development Authority, said county officials are hoping for another employer to take over the former Collins & Aikman plant.

But in tough economic times, that might be hard to achieve, he said.

“It’s always difficult to recruit,” he said. “But it’s more difficult. The companies are thinking less about expanding.”

SEEKING RETRAINING

Some people who lose their jobs go back to school and learn different skills.

Scott Spears, of Trion was among 250 workers laid off from Mount Vernon Mills in Chattooga County, Ga., in January.

Mr. Spears enrolled at Northwestern Technical College in Rock Spring, Ga.

He can draw unemployment while he’s enrolled, and he gets money for school books, gas and food through the federal Workforce Investment Act.

He said he hopes the economy will be better by the time he’s through with his two-year degree in industrial control systems.

“That’s what I’m hoping,” he said.

Susan Doesburg, WIA assistant coordinator at Northwestern, said the most popular programs are nursing, electrical and heating and air conditioning. She said enrollment has increased because of layoffs. School officials said WIA enrollment averages 15 students a quarter, but 60 students enrolled this quarter.

Mrs. Doesburg said those students are using resources at a fast clip, and she’s worried how much help Northwestern can give to victims of future layoffs.

“Due to this increase, WIA funds are now limited,” she said.

Joyce Carrier, dean of the school of technology at Dalton State College, said she expects enrollment to jump in the fall, and perhaps the spring, because of layoffs. Many former employees come hoping the economy will get better once they graduate, she said.

“I think all of us would like to believe that,” Mrs. Carrier said.

B’Man: Look at the bright side. You can always sell shit on EBAY.

Big Meds’ Extra Profit… America’s Extra Loss

Humana’s Net Rises 13% On Sizable Claims Drop

By DONNA KARDOS
April 28, 2008 7:10 a.m.

Humana Inc. posted a 13% rise in first-quarter net income amid a sizable claims drop as the company’s Medicare prescription-drug operations continued to struggle.

The health insurer also raised its full-year earnings outlook by a dime and issued a second-quarter outlook above analysts’ expectations

Humana reported net income of $80.2 million, or 47 cents a share, up from $71.2 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

Last month, Humana nearly halved its forecast to 44 cents to 46 cents a share on higher Medicare drug costs stemming from a cut in co-payments, which the company said was due to miscalculations in designing its Medicare prescription-drug plan. Humana said Monday earnings topped last month’s warning because of a lower-than-expected effective tax rate, which will also help full-year profits.

Revenue climbed 12% to $6.96 billion from $6.20 billion, driven by higher average Medicare Advantage membership. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 45 cents a share on $6.94 billion in revenue…

…Looking forward, Humana raised its 2008 earnings projection to $4.10 to $4.35 a share, compared with analysts’ latest mean estimate was $4.19 a share. The company also said it expects second-quarter earnings of $1.15 to $1.20 a share. Analysts projected $1.12.

B’Man: Better than expected profits and I am spending even more this year than last. So, who is paying the bill for the extra money I spend? Me, of course and they are doing even BETTER than expected.

THIS is a prime example of why we need a Single Payer, NOT-FOR-PROFIT healthcare system so these assholes will stop getting richer as we get sicker and poorer.

True Lies by Taalam Acey

From the opening of the award winning documentary ‘American Blackout’, Taalam Acey recites his amazing spoken word poem… “True Lies“

Thanks to my good friend…

Updated to correct Mr Acey’s first name. h/t Jacqui

Response to Chinese Pet Food Contamination: New Ingredients

Police: Woman Lived with Partially Mumified Sister’s Body

DETROIT (AP) — Detroit police say they’ve found the partially mummified body of a woman in her 80s on the kitchen floor of a house where her mentally troubled sister was living.

Police say they believe the surviving sister had been living with the body for one to three years. They say the body was partially covered with newspapers and that a cat and dog apparently
ate part of it.

The Detroit Free Press says authorities removed the surviving sister Wednesday night and took her to a crisis center. She’s also in her 80s and appears to have mental problems.

Police say they went to the house after a neighbor called to express concern.

Associated Press

Super Sized Sucks!

Back in January,

 

 

Barack Obama’s stirring victory in Iowa was also a good night for our democracy. The turnout broke records and young people – who were mobilized and organized – participated in unprecedented numbers. And now that Iowans have spoken – the first citizens in the nation to do so – and the Democratic delegate count for the top three candidates in January (2,025 delegates are needed to secure the nomination):

Clinton – 169

Obama – 66

Edwards – 47

“Huh?” you say. “Rose, you made a MAJOR typo.”

In fact, as we now know those number are correct: the third-place finishing Sen. Hillary Clinton now has over twice as many delegates as Sen. Obama, and more than three times as many delegates as the second-place candidate, Sen. John Edwards. Why? Because the Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system that includes 842 “super-delegates” – un-pledged party leaders not chosen by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination. Many have already announced the candidate they will support.

In a clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure was created following George McGovern’s landslide defeat in 1972. It was designed to prevent a nominee who was “out of sync with the rest of the party,” Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer told MSNBC. Democratic National Committee member Elaine Kamarck called it a “sort of safety valve.”

In 1988, Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke out against super delegates –that these appointed delegates be permitted to vote for the candidate of their choosing rather than the winner of the state’s caucus or primary. He was right to do so. Twenty years later, when the word “change” is being bandied about, isn’t it time for the Democratic Party to give real meaning to the word? Strengthen our democracy by reforming the super-delegate system so that the people, not the party establishment, choose their candidate. Actually I desire the entire electorial college be done away with! The two party system is not democratic at all!!