.. when nobody is watching the hen house…

Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The Massachusetts election Tuesday was the last one conducted under rules that had been in place for over a century to protect the right of the people to choose their government free from enormous expenditures of corporate wealth. Next time voters want to send us a message at the ballot box, they may find their voices drowned out by wealthy corporations with their own special-interest agendas.
This Supreme Court decision takes us back a century to a legal framework that fostered a golden era of corporate influence. While the core of the McCain-Feingold law, the ban on unlimited “soft money” contributions by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals directly to the political parties remains intact for now, the reasoning of this decision undermines the foundation of a host of laws enacted to strengthen our democracy and curb corruption in government. Indeed, the soft-money ban could very well be the next target of those who want to see our political system dominated by corporate influence.
This decision gives a green light to corporations to unleash their massive coffers on the political system. The profits of Fortune 500 companies in 2008 alone were 350 times the entire amount spent on the last presidential election.

Oil companies, with virtually no harm to their balance sheets, can now try to “take out” members of Congress who don’t toe their company line on energy policy. Foreign-owned companies–even those owned and controlled by other governments are free to underwrite the candidates of their choice.
Because of the scope of the Citizens United decision, it will take close examination to see what can be done to restore the voice of the average citizen in elections. We must not stand by as corporations threaten to dominate our democratic process. If the race in Massachusetts showed us anything, it’s the power of voters. In our democracy, that power not the power of corporate wealth should decide our elections.

WP/1.23.10

B’Man’s Sycophantic Ass-Kissers Watch: John Amato at Crooks and Liars

I was banned from the fucktard’s site. No reason given, but from the number of in-coming links from there and seeing that many of the readers there agree with me that Single-Payer, Not-for-profit healthcare should be FORCED on to the table (Excuse me, people, you realize they work FOR us, right?). It seems evident that my message goes heavily against the grain in the mind of an ass-kissing sycophant who must gather whatever popularity and power he can by turning against the true needs and desires of Americans, especially Progressives.

Today, Master Ass-Kisser, himself, posted about having Nancy Pelosi on for a live chat to discuss America’s Affordable Health Choices Act

I hope that her shit is more palatable than Mr Obama’s. In my mind, all shit is something to avoid, but not Johnny Boy. Mmm Mmm.

I want to know why it is that so many American “Progressives” have suddenly stopped fighting for real change (I think I know the answer to my question). Why is it that you Sheople jump on board with a water-carrying asshat like Amato, when you know he has bedded down with the Power Mongering Demublican Party? He gets his pat on the head and a little backing and man o man having fun with those celeb’s… but what do you get?

Fucked. That’s what.

I watched this shit for 8 years as you other dumbasses fell for “The Godly Man” W and his criminally, evil ways. I watched as “Bushies” formed and basically defended and supported each and every horrific thing he and his cronies did. What I did not expect, at the time, was to have those who kept saying they wanted change to turn into Bushies. For that is precisely what Kos, C&L and many other so-called “Progressive” sites have done (become what they so hated for the last 8 years). Do you fools not see the hypocrisy and irony in your actions?

Do you realize that it is the REAL Progressives, like me, who are pushing for change and NOT willing to satisfy for the status quo of them “letting us eat cake”? That those fake progressive sites are now nothing more than a caricature of their previous object of their hatred, the Bushies.

But there is a way even without these slaves to the Dem Party. Let me show you how another REAL Progressive without the shit on his lips addresses this issue:

Did you see that, Johnny Boy? How about the rest of you jerkoffs who are only capable of toeing the line they want you to toe? Aren’t you embarrassed to call yourselves Progressive when regression and capitulation is your only method? You see Johnny Boy, when someone is a Patriot, they don’t fall on their knees and gobble the Elitist goober just to stroke their own ego. They stand up to the ones that are standing in the way of PROGRESS.

What I am saying is that these money-grubbing, ass-licking, water-carrying sites like Amatos’ are just the other face of the Two Party system. With John, he is too ignorant to have planned it, so I can only assume that he is simply liking the attention, money and the time he gets to sit with Arianna and the few opportunities he gets to speak with Olbermann. I don’t know what, exactly, it is about these folks, except it must be some sense of need for attention and the limelight. It sure as hell isn’t about what is best for this country.

The other explanation would be that they are complicit. I don’t think so. John isn’t smart enough.

But, he is dumb enough to allow the Demublican Party to rule what the agenda for his site is. This is obvious when it comes to one of the most crucial issues facing us today… our healthcare. Unfortunately, he and those others are unaware or just plain too stupid to see how what they are ass-kissing about is going to be a dismal failure and we will have them and their stupid ass-kissing fools to blame for it.

Thank goodness we have a different voice than the sycophantic ass-kissers out there:

D Is For Deception

Yesterday, the House Democrats unveiled their health care reform bill.

Even if it passes, it is bound to fail.

Why?

Because it keeps the insurance industry in the game.

It will cost a trillion dollars over ten years.

It won’t cover tens of millions of Americans.

It won’t control costs.

And it’s a bailout for the insurance industry.

Only a single payer — everybody in, nobody out — national health insurance bill (co-sponsored by 85 members of the House — most recently by Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania)) will hit the grand slam — cover everyone, save money, control costs, and fix a broken health care system.

But what struck me yesterday while watching the Democrats was the depth of their deception.

There was Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Both heaping praise upon and honoring Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan).

And his father — John Dingell, Sr.

John Dingell, Sr. represented Michigan’s 15th district for 22 years until his death in 1955.

John Dingell, Jr. has represented the district ever since.

But not once during the press conference did anyone mention that it was John Dingell, Sr. who first introduced a single payer bill in Congress in 1943.

And it was Democratic leaders in Congress and President Barack Obama who took single payer off the table.

The Republicans will tell you straight up — we’re for big business.

Single payer is socialism.

And that’s why we’re against single payer.

When the Democrats are out of power, they will tell you what you want to hear — we’re for single payer.

They then take power, and all of a sudden, they are against single payer.

Take Henry Waxman (D-California) as a case in point.

For years, Henry Waxman was a co-sponsor of HR 676 — the single payer bill in the House.

Until earlier this year, when he became part of the leadership in the House.

Then Waxman took his name off the single payer bill.

In 2003, Barack Obama said he was for single payer.

Obama said at the time that we would have single payer in America only when the Democrats took back the White House and Congress.

Last year, Obama and the Democrats took back the White House and Congress.

And now President Obama is opposed to single payer.

The reality is that there is only one solution to the health care crisis — get the insurance companies out of health care.

The Democrats are now engaged in what Dr. Marcia Angell — former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine — calls “the futility of piecemeal tinkering.”

Angell and a majority of doctors in the United States — and a majority of the American people — believe that only a major single payer overhaul will get the job done.

That’s why we’re challenging the Democrats around the country.

And we will continue to challenge them, and the health insurance industry to whom they are beholden, until single payer becomes a reality in America.

We’re in it for the long haul.

Thanks to your generosity, Single Payer Action has directly confronted Democratic leaders including:

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California)

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York)

Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota)

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland)

First Lady Michelle Obama

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)

White House Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana).

And we’re planning to ratchet up the confrontation when Congress heads home for the August recess.

We have more than 20 single payer activists in our network now — and the list continues to grow.

The idea is to build a national core group of activists who will challenge members of Congress in non-violent direct confrontation.

To demand an answer — why are you ignoring the plight of the American people?

And to demand action — put single payer on the table now.

We need your help now to fund and expand this network in time for next month’s Congressional recess.

So, please, donate now — whatever you can afford — $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000.

So that we can confront the corporate Democrats in August.

And remember, only two days left on our special book offer.

If you donate $100 or more now, we will send you a copy, hot off the press, of Theresa Amato’s hard cover, 379-page masterpiece — Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (The New Press, June 2009).

Autographed by Ralph Nader — who wrote the foreword to the book.

Phil Donahue said this about Grand Illusion: “Theresa Amato takes the biggest swing — not a jab, but a roundhouse punch — at America’s corrupt electoral system.”

So, don’t delay.

Please donate now.

So that we can challenge the corporate Democrats on their home turf in August.

Together, we can make the difference.

Onward to a life-saving, cost-saving single payer.

Russell Mokhiber

Health Insurance Deals The Three Card Monte Game

Let me add some math and street savvy to Dennis The Menace’s fantastic remark (provided in BuelahMan’s post here). Private health insurance is *identical* — INDENTICAL — not *like* not *analogous* not *I’m being clever* — to a street-corner 3-CARD MONTE GAME.

For anyone who is not familiar with the game here’s a tutorial on the hustle with the cards themselves as the “crew” (*insurance company*) would set up business and lure you in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kO_5cNF5k&feature=channel

Let’s say, though, that the insurance company, like a 3-Card Monte crew, is subject to law. Let’s say that what they’re doing with the sleight of hand weren’t legal at all, even though it is. Let’s say they were merely doing their best to throw the cards speedily and you’d take a shot at guessing where the winning card was. If you had average eyes and were comfortable in the hustle and bustle of a New York City or Buenos Aires or Lima or London street corner (which MOST Americans very much aren’t — they’re either White, scared or both), you’d pick the winning card 1/3 of the time.

Fair enough. You are being paid EVEN money in a game in which you are a 2/1 underdog. I’ll spare the boring calculations of this and get right to the math of it. You are being paid 50c for every insurance claim when you should be paid 67c. The insurance company, knowing everything about you, acting in a completely forthright manner, not even charging outrageous deductibles is making 17% return on their money. Any business which can do that in volume is going to be very, very, successful. To make 17% a year, every year, puts a totally honest business in the upper tier of success.

Now, how can the insurance company, even acting honestly, just playing the odds, guarantee these kinds of profits? Easy. They have something you all should have, but either don’t bother getting or don’t have or don’t care about. These are called “actuarial tables”. Here’s an example of an older one that the Social Security uses:

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/as117/as117.pdf

Here’s a more general link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_table

So, insurance companies know more about you based upon your risk profile than you know about yourself. That’s just insurance companies doing honest business and playing the odds. Even when they have to make major payouts on claims or a lot of minor ones, those have been figured in, and they’re making way more off all the healthy people who don’t make claims. Deductibles add a tremendous amount to the profit % of insurance companies, making their expected return behaving honorably now around 22%.

Insurance companies don’t behave honorably. They cherry-pick healthy people. They question and delay every claim. They intimidate and duck and dodge, knowing they have the full support of the government plus they have the best lawyers on the planet and YOU HAVE NOTHING. You are not David fighting Goliath. You are an ant fighting Goliath. You make a legitimate claim. They accuse you of insurance fraud — a custodial felony — what the fuck are you going to do about that? Can you pay a top class lawyer $700/hour to DEFEND you?

I write this as someone who understands math and capital markets intimately. I consider myself an economic conservative but social and foreign policy left-wing extremist. I’ve been hustling with math my entire life and I’m well-off. Yet, both my social left-wing extremism and my economic conservatism inform my belief that free, high quality, guaranteed, single-payer health care is the best option for the individual person and family as well as the economy. The long-term success of an economy (see Robert Solow, economist, on this)is determined mostly by the return to the society’s “unit of labor.” This means a society’s economic success is dependent on having the most productive, healthy, educated, safe, responsible, and creative workforce. In this environment, everyone gets richer.

In the UNFRIENDLY/FRIENDLY FASCIST “President” BushBaManuel Cheney reverse Robin Hood imperialist state, the richest 1000 Americans get much richer. The richest 500,000 Americans get somewhat richer. And it all comes out of the remaining 299,400,000 pockets because of rackets like “for-profit” insurance.

(Posted on kelso’s behalf by BuelahMan: taken from the comments section of the linked post and added because it was so Damned Good, hope that’s ok, bro’)