Healthcare Craziness

One of the perils of actually being employed during the worst economic disaster in 70 years is that you sometimes have to put up with some pretty stupid stuff at work.  Take, for example, this email recently spammed to the company on the company network by the owner of the company (names have been removed to protect the ignorant):

—–Original Message—–
From: XXX XXXXXX
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:19 AM
To: All Outlook Users
Subject: HC disaster synposys (or: Healthcare Hell)

Just think about these for a second or two..
_______________
Following the mad recommendations of Peter Singer made in NYT’s Sunday
magazine, it pays to take a look at what is actually in the healthcare
bill.

It’s worse than you can possibly imagine. Somehow, it manages to be
Singer on steroids. Who wrote this bill. It has Singer’s footprints all
over it.

Peter Fleckstein (aka Fleckman) is reading it and has been posting on
Twitter his findings. This is from his postings (Note: All comments are
Fleckman’s) _______________

Here:

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS
that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides
what treatments/benes u get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC
Benefits
4 you. U have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill – HC will be provided 2 ALL non US
citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill – Govt will have real-time access 2 individs finances & a
National ID Healthcard will b issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access 2 ur banks accts
4 elect. funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan 4 retirees and their families
in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring priv HC plans
under Govt control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill – Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans
in the Exchange

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt
will ration ur Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Govt mandates linguistic approp svcs. Example
- Translation 4 illegal aliens

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN &
Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members – U
Health care WILL b rationed

-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Indiv. will b
automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No
“judicial review” against Govt Monop

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ #AMA – The Govt will tell YOU what
u can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt
plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay 4 HC 4 part time employees AND
their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov.
pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub.
opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng
2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv.
taxes.
(Americans will pay)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access
2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC – “The tax imposed under this section shall not be
treated as tax” Yes, it says that

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician svcs 4 Medicaid.
Seniors, low income, poor affected

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty u have,
you’ll all be paid the same

PG 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc.
Literally value of humans.

PG 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC
industries

PG 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven
wheelchairs

PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer
patients – welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals 4 what Govt deems
preventable readmissions.

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admiss that
results in a readmiss-Govt will penalize u.

Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells
Drs.
what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating
hospitals cannot expand

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have oppt to apply for exception BUT community
input required. Can u say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 – Govt mandates estab. of outcome based
measures. HC the way they want. Rationing

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority 2 disqual Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs,
etc.
Forcing peeps in2 Govt plan

Pg 354 Sec 1177 – Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs ppl!
WTF. My sis has down syndrome!!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory
Cmtte. Can u say HC by phone?

PG 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think
Senior Citizens end of life

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills,
durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Govt provides apprvd list of end of
life resources, guiding u in death

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program 4 orders 4 end of life. The
Govt has a say in how ur life ends

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will b used frequently
as patients health deteriorates

PG 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER 4 end of
life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The govt will specify which Doctors can write an
end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment u will
have at end of life

Pg 469 – Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello,
ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment 2
a community-based org. Like ACORN?

PG 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which
means they will insert Govt in2 ur marriage

Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining,
creating, rationing those svcs

Wow.  I sure am scared now.  This sounds pretty much like the status quo.  God help us if all those health insurance bureaucrats ever get replaced by government bureaucrats.  The sender didn’t have the guts or decency to include a copy of the actual bill, though.  We’re supposed to accept this screed as fact and get all panicked and worked up about nationalized health care.  What bullshit.

Friday Fun: a web roundup of the “Flat Birth” Society

Or, as I like to call it, the walk of shame for the lunatic fringe.  Here’s video of our nation’s most prominent conspiracy theorists expounding on their ridiculous lies about President Obama’s birth records.  Watch, pay attention, and remember:

Liz Cheney defending the Flat Birth Society

Lout Dobbs revealing his true colors

Senile Watergate criminal and Flat Birther G. Gordon Liddy getting ripped apart by Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews eviscerating Rep. Campbell about the Flat Birth crap

Sean “Waterboard Me” Hannity demonstrating he is, in fact, an idiot, a coward and a fraud

These people and all like them are liars and cowards.  Remember them.  The only antidote for their lies is repeating the truth, every time you hear one of them speak up.  Their arguments are devoid of reason or fact, and should be exposed every time they’re uttered.

Destroy them.  Treat them like the cockroaches they are, or this pathetic lie will continue to spread like a cancer.

It’s all about the hate

As MediaMatters.org points out, the flap about President Obama’s birth certificate isn’t about facts or proof; it’s about fear, racism and paranoia:

“Birther” of a Nation?

This has gone well beyond stupid.

In 2009, the Party of Lincoln officially has become, 150 years later, the party of Racists, Hypocrites and Liars.

I’m talking about the so-called “Birther Bill” introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla) earlier this year and co-sponsored by several prominent GOP lawmakers including Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex) and Dan Burton (R-Ind).  This bill, which frankly would not have been even conceived of had John McCain won the election last year, would require presidential campaigns to provide a “copy of the candidate’s birth certificate”.

President Obama has already done so, and for the record, of the two men in the race last year, he was the only one actually born on American soil, in an American state.  John McCain was born in Panama.  Both were born to American citizens, and since this country does not recognize dual citizenship, both are “natural born” citizens as required by the Constitution.  No other President’s birth records have been questioned so persistently, nor examined so thoroughly.  The only reason these “birthers” are objecting to Obama’s public release of his birth records is because they can’t handle the fact that a black man won.

Apparently they’re fine with black people being sports stars, singers, servants and sex objects, but leadership is a burden to be shouldered only by White Men.

These mindless racists are now demanding that President Obama release a copy of his “long form” birth certificate, a document I very much doubt any of them would be able to produce on demand.  And, as I’ve said before, it’s also something none of them would be demanding of John McCain if the election had gone the other way.  This has got to stop.  Even if he capitulates to their ludicrous demands and releases the long form, there’s little chance the “birthers” will accept it as proof.  Instead, they’ll no doubt go on believing it was “forged” or “faked” or otherwise falsified.

Not because there’s any proof of conspiracy, but because they’re idiots.  And racists.  And hypocrites.

Send Hannity a Pussy

Hey, kids!  Let’s have some fun with right-wing jackass and Faux Noise stuffed suit Sean Hannity!  It’s been nearly two months since he said he’d volunteer to be waterboarded “for charity”.  He still hasn’t done it, despite the fact that his colleague and friend Erich “Mancow” Muller did, and decided from his experience that it is, in fact, torture.

I’m not entirely sure why Hannity hasn’t done it yet, but I have a theory.  You see, like every other right-wing asshat who defends the so-called “enhanced interrogation methods” employed by Dick “Torquemada” Cheney, Hannity is a pussy.

He’s a yellow-bellied, lily-livered, asslicking, lying buffoon.

And next week will be the two-month anniversary of his pussyhood.  Let’s all have some fun and send him a pussy to help him celebrate it!  Here’s a picture of a nice, wet one that I’m sure he’ll appreciate:

See, it’s even got a yellow background, just like Sean himself!  Just download it, copy it, or whatever, and send it with your comments to hannity@foxnews.com.  Or send one of your own pictures if you prefer.  Please, no pornography though, tempting as it may be.  I don’t want to give him any more talking points.  Keep it humourous.

Hannity’s Bluff Called – AGAIN!

Right-Wing bloviator and subhuman waste of flesh Sean Hannity must be regretting last week’s moment of stupidity.  You’ll recall (hell, it’s only two posts ago) that Mr. Hannity offered to allow himself to be waterboarded “for the troops’ families”.  Well, that night Keith Olbermann called his bluff publicly, offering $1000 per second, if he actually goes through with it.  Last night Olbermann found a volunteer to actually do it…

But we all know Hannity won’t do it.  He’s a coward and a clueless chickenhawk.

Out on a Limb(augh)

Talk about tortured logic.  O’l Rushbo can’t get enough of the taste of his own feet these days.  Take this utterly ridiculous statement from a recent broadcast:

LIMBAUGH: The idea that torture doesn’t work- that’s been put out from John McCain on down- You know, for the longest time McCain said torture doesn’t work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?

As reported by ThinkProgress.org, Limbaugh once again took a statement completely out of context and twisted it to suit his own needs.  While McCain did, in fact, say that the VC “broke” him during a torture session, you need to dig a little deeper to find the truth.  I’ll let McCain’s own words speak for themselves:

Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed. – Faith of My Fathers

And this quote from a 2005 Newsweek interview sums it up nicely:

“In my experience, abuse of prisoners often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — whether it is true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering.”

In other words, torture doesn’t work.

So, in answer to Rush’s question, what are we to think here?  How about “Rush, you’re a fat, lying, puffed-up, egotistical, narcissistic jackass and a coward.”  How about “Rush, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about and should keep your fat pie-hole shut.”  Or how about just “Rush, fuck off and die, you useless coward.”

And that, my friends, is what we’re to think.

Why we can’t trust Republicans with our country

This video is a must-see for anyone who wishes to understand the truth behind our present economic disaster and why Republicans should never, EVER again be trusted to control the country’s wealth.  They ran us into the ground many times before, and they’ll do it again.

So you see, the disaster visited upon us by Bush & Co isn’t an aberration.  It’s a logical result of a failed ideology.

More Texas stupid

Just when you thought our elected representatives couldn’t get any more stupid, we have this from Texas:

AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.

The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.

Read the full story here.

The left has reacted with predictable and inappropriate rage, calling Brown out for “racism” and accusing her of being “insensitive” and “disrespectful”.

Isn’t it possible that she’s just stupid?  Or ignorant?

I mean, what good old, easy-to-deal-with, “American” names did she have in mind?  Blagojevich?  Schwarzenegger?  Wozniak?

Obama?

What an idiot.  This kind of ignorance could only come from a Republican.

Fear and Loathing in Anchorage

This latest news from Huffington Post should make all of us political bloggers sit up and take notice.  Apparently one of Alaska’s marginally competent Republican Congressmen took issue with being a regular feature on the now-famous Mudflats blog and decided to go on a personal crusade to reveal the identity of his tormentor.

In a recent letter to his constituents, the “Honorable” Mr. Doogan included this little missive:

The identity of the person who writes the liberal Democratic Mudflats blog has been secret since the blog began, protected by the Anchorage Daily News, among others. My own theory about the public process is you can say what you want, as long as you are willing to stand behind it using your real name. So I was interested to learn that the woman who writes the blog is Anchorage resident *name redacted*.

Best wishes,

Mike

It’s nice to know he’s got such deep thoughts about free speech and democracy in America.  What a lunatic.  He, and jackasses like him, are the reason so many of us choose to blog anonymously.  Anonymity is not a sign of cowardice, it’s a sign of prudence.  Anonymity and privacy are rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and have been a cornerstone of American politics since the Revolution.  Doogan’s actions are nothing short of political harrassment, the most anti-American thing any politician can do.  He has abused his power and position.  It’s not for Doogan to reveal the identity of anyone whose opinions he disagrees with.  If his critics choose to attack him anonymously, that’s their choice.  Obviously, based on recent events, they have their reasons.  Doogan isn’t a good American – he’s a coward and a traitor.

And that’s my anonymous 2 cents.