The last paragraph of the article is most telling. The leader of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Karen Ignangi, spilled the beans. In doing so, she laid out the case for why we need a public option. Her industry doesn't want to insure people with "health problems":
Ms. Ignagni said her biggest concern was that the bill would require insurers to accept all applicants for several years before the government had any meaningful way to enforce a requirement for people to have insurance. In that gap, Ms. Ignagni predicted, many people with health problems are likely to enter the market.
Last night, I posted a video of Rep. Anthony Weiner explaining how the insurance industry report on the Baucus bill made the case for the public option, too. Ignangi and her crew might have just outsmarted themselves.
GREAT LEADER REV. MOON TO STEP DOWN: Washington Times owner and Washington Times editor's pick-selected author and loudmouth Korean Jesus, The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is "going Lear" on his church: "SEOUL, South Korea – The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, now approaching 90 and still one of the world's most controversial religious figures, is handing over day-to-day control of his Unification Church to three U.S.-educated sons." He will spend the remaining years of his terrifying life fucking around with the aquifers and drug plantations he co-owns, with the Bushes, in Paraguay. [AP]
President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system is expected to clear its last committee hurdle Tuesday -- but almost certainly without the strong bipartisan endorsement he and some moderate Republicans have sought.Meanwhile, the health insurance industry has paid for a study that, quelle surprise!, says that doing anything to reform health insurance (and which would hurt health insurance companies' profits) is a bad idea.
Right. We've been down this road before, with studies from the coal industry that proclaim that climate change is no problem and with studies from the tobacco industry that said there was no link between smoking and lung cancer.
Anyone who sees any credibility in a study which is paid for by any industry which proclaims that "doing anything to change business as usual would be bad" has mush for brains. You can bet dollars to dog shit that any politician who speaks favorably about this health insurance industry study has been bought and paid for by the heal insurers' lobbyists.
... Personally, I think that a report put out by my cat would be more reliable than one that was put out by the insurance companies. (And he's not even an economist.) ...
President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized -- and the Pentagon is deploying -- at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials. (total increase approved by Obama 34,000)
Meet Utah's Adam Jay Manning, loving boyfriend and father, who groped the delivery room nurse after hitting on her, repeatedly.
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Chip Reid is concerned
Chip Reid, that lonely man, fighting powerful forces of objective media for CBS, is concerned. He is concerned that the Nobel Committee in Oslo Norway is a Democratic Party operation, and that because they have not awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace to a GOP president since T.R., well, it just shows. I mean, they never awarded a Nobel to Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest president of the last half of the last century, and maybe the greatest president ever TM, well it just proves it.
If the Nobel Peace Prize only supports liberal causes, isn't Chip Reid, noted critical thinker, admitting that peace is liberal? Could that be what has Chip's knickers in a twist, that maybe, just maybe there might be a reason why Reagan thru Chimpy administrations were left out of the prizes?
REID: I mean, most Democrats have praised it, and most Republicans have said, you have got to be kidding me — Ronald Reagan didn't get one, but Barack Obama, nominated 12 days after he was sworn in, gets a Nobel Peace Prize. And the fear among some, even some Democrats, is that this is going to widen the partisan divide and make things even more difficult to accomplish on every front.
– Chip Reid
Chip, Fox is on line one. You might want to take their call.
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Was Nancy Pelosi laughing with or at Charlie Rangel?
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The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that tens of millions of the world's poor will have their food rations cut or canceled in the next few weeks as rich nations cut back on aid. "We are facing a silent tsunami," said WFP director Josette Sheeran. "A humanitarian disaster is unrolling."
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Newsmax sees opportunity for beloved coup
Absolutely hysterical right-wing war newsletter Newsmax, which recently opined that a military junta should overthrow the executive branch of the United States Government, because of "spending," is now very seriously concerned about Barack Obama "declaring war on Fox News." MORE »
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Fox/GOP news
This weekend, a minor news story popped up that should probably get a little more attention than it will. Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, White House communications director Anita Dunn gave what Huffington Post's Sam Stein called, "a lengthy and brutal denunciation of Fox News, calling the cable outlet a vehicle for Republican Party propaganda and an ideological opponent of the president." Stein includes a few examples:WH official position: weird gay bloggers are fine, can wear pajamas if they want
The secret White House advisor (RAHMBO?) who upset Andrew Sullivan and other members of the "Internet left fringe" so greatly by telling them to wear real pants instead of pajamas, guess what his or her sentiment doesn't represent? "That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all," according to White House deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer, "we've held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth." Oooh, "phone calls." "A dozen calls." Has anyone ever not worn pajamas to talk on the telephone? [Greg Sargent
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Rudy Mussolini Giuliani, unhappy he doesn't have his usual choice seats next to the Yankee dugout for the playoffs, calls 911 and gets the actual ticket-holders kicked out.
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In an article published in Sunday's Washington Post, Joseph Rocha, a former petty officer stationed in Bahrain during the early years of the Iraq war, wrote: "The irony of 'don't ask, don't tell' is that it protects bigots and punishes gays who comply."
Because homosexuals can't admit their sexuality to senior officers, they can't complain about abuses, and that provides cover for those committing violence against them, Rocha explained.
Rocha's criticism of "dont' ask, don't tell" comes on the heels of a gay-rights march on Washington, DC, this past weekend, ahead of which President Barack Obama gave a speech in which pledged to end the policy. But many gay-rights activists have accused the president of dragging his heels on the policy change.
Shortly after joining the Navy's canine bomb-sniffing unit in Bahrain in 2004, Rocha says he was subjected to repeated hazing by his commanding officer. CNN reports that Rocha and others in his unit were subjected to numerous acts of humiliation, including being hog-tied, being force-fed dog treats, and being duct-taped to a chair and left inside a dog kennel.
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/gay-sailor-my-comrades-locked-me-in-a-feces-filled-dog-kennel/
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