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.

The Torture Passes

Daddy’s little girl is all growed up and ready to start illegal wars in countries that didn’t attack us.

The Washington Times reports that Liz Cheney, daughter and primary defender of former Vice President and lying scumbag Darth Dick Cheney, has been making noises about running for political office sometime in the future.  Read on:

“It’s something I very well may do,” said Elizabeth “Liz” Cheney, a lawyer and State Department appointee who has worked on two Republican presidential campaigns.

Ms. Cheney, 44, has emerged as one of the strongest defenders of the effectiveness and legality of Bush-Cheney policies on enhanced interrogation methods. More recently, she and her father have become two of the most outspoken critics of President Obama’s position on terrorism and other national security issues, which has led Republicans to consider her a strong candidate for national political office.

Ms. Cheney told The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News” that recent new reports that her father ordered the CIA to hide information from Congress and that a government probe could follow appears like political cover for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who have accused agency Director Leon Panetta of lying.

“It gets more and more appalling every day,” she said. “I think they’re very worried about Speaker Pelosi.”

Oh, please.  This woman is even more detached from reality than her dickhead father is.  Anyone who thinks waterboarding isn’t torture and that the CIA tells the truth to Congress and the American people, is an idiot.

I hope she does run for office.  I hope she gets her ass handed to her.  I hope the weight of her father’s crimes and scandals comes crashing down on her head like a ton of shit.  I hope the entire Cheney family gets indicted for war crimes and sent to the gulag their supreme patriarch created.

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.

Lord of the Lies

One thing that’s been firmly established about Dick Cheney is that he’s a liar.  Another is a that he’s a coward.  He’s a lying coward who’s more than willing to sacrifice other men and women to serve his worthless causes, but lacks the courage to put his own sorry ass on the line for them.  So when this little nugget came up on Faux News’ “On the Record” with Greta Van Sycophant, I had to wonder if someone had accidentally slipped truth serum in his daily serving of human blood:

“On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9-11, there was never any evidence to prove that,” he told the “On The Record” host in a joint interview with his daughter Liz. “There was “some reporting early on … but that was never borne out,” Cheney said.

This brief bout with, erm… reality?  Conscience?  Truth? … didn’t stop him from throwing his former puppet boss under the bus, however:

“George … did say and did testify that there was an ongoing relationship between al-Qaeda and Iraq, but no proof that Iraq was involved in 9-11.”

Interesting.  The Dark Lord of the Sith seems to be realizing that he won’t get away with it forever.  Next he’ll be telling us that KSM and others were waterboarded at Gitmo in order to create a false link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

As if we didn’t already know that.

266

That’s how many times the illegal, unethical, immoral and unjustified “harsh interrogation method” known as waterboarding was used “sparingly” by agents of the CIA under the authorization of the Bush administration.

That’s how many times it was used on two men, both al-Qaeda operatives, AFTER they’d already given up any useful information they had.

This was not interrogation.  It was revenge.  It was punishment.  It was torture.

And it was wrong.  The men who wrote the memos authorizing it should be condemned, prosecuted and put in prison for a very long time.  The men who did the torture must be brought to justice.  And the so-called “leaders” who still, against all available evidence, insist it was necessary we do this to protect our national security should be held accountable to their crimes.

And maybe they should be waterboarded, but that’s not for me to say.  I doubt Cheney or Bush would survive even the first five waterboardings, much less 266.  Perhaps 266 years in prison for each of them, one year for each time this act of vicious revenge was committed, would suffice.

266.  Six times a day for a month for Khalid Shayk Mohammed.

266.  That’s what Bush & Cheney thought was “justified.”

266.  The new Number of the Beast.  Further proof, if we needed it, that neither of them have any morals whatsoever.  This was not about protecting America.  This was nothing more than abuse.  This was torture.

266.

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.

Shame

Who knew the candidate who campaigned on a promise of change would turn out to be such a spineless wimp?

I speak of the week’s news that President Obama has decided not to hold the Bush Administration and its coven of lawyers – Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Bradbury, Rizzo, Gonzales – will not, in fact, be held accountable for the crimes against humanity they committed during the so-called “war on terror”.

In a statement on Thursday, the President made this incomprehensible statement regarding accountability:

“This is a time for reflection, not retribution… nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”

This is not about retribution.  It’s about justice.  When we fail to hold those in positions of leadership accountable for their actions, we lose our moral legitemacy in the world.  If we fail to prosecute Bush et al. for actions that Obama’s own justice department has acknowledged are, in fact, criminal in nature, then we are no better than the worst of our enemies.

In order to “more forward”, we must revisit the sins of the past and excise them.  Now that we know more of the crimes committed by Bush, Cheney, Gonzales and their cronies, we must act swiftly and deliberately to hold them accountable.

Anything less is unacceptable.  This is not about retribution.  It’s about justice.  They committed crimes; they MUST be held accountable.

Should we have “looked forward” after World War II and NOT held the Nazis accountable for their actions?

Should the Cambodians “look forward” and ignore the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge?

Should suffering Zimbabweans, if they ever pull out of the tyranny of Mugabe and ZANU-PF, “look forward” and not demand justice?

Should the long-suffering people of North Korea “look forward” and not demand justice if they ever emerge from their decades-long nightmare?

The souls of the dead cry out for justice, Mr. President.  The tortured demand it in their screams.  If you do not cleanse the stain of the Bush Administration from our national soul, then you are as guilty as they are.  And worse, you will enable future tyrants and dictators here and abroad to “get away with it”.

Justice, Mr. President.  That’s all we ask.  Justice.  It must be done, no matter how painful, difficult or embarrassing.

Those nutty Republicans

They’re mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it any more!

Teabaggers on parade

The right wing is tired of getting the shaft from Uncle Sam and is finally rising up.  They’re gonna stick it to the man!  On April 15, hard-core right wingers across the country will take the situation in hand and spread their (ahem) message far and wide.  It’ll be an orgy of revolt!  Or at least, a revolting orgy.

At gatherings across the nation they’re letting it all hang out…

As nutty as this idea is, I have to admit it’s going to take some real balls to pull it off.  They’re really taking this situation in hand.  I didn’t think the far right still had the stones to circle their wagons like this.  They could be just jerking our chains, but I think any ejaculations about their failure to perform may be premature.  You see, men like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Greta Van Susteren are all planning on attending these group gropes, and are scheduled to broadcast live from tea parties from cities across the country on Tax Day.

So as long as there aren’t any cock-ups, this thing could really be in the bag.

Wiretapping you can believe in

What a difference six months makes.

During the run-up to the election, then-Senator Obama argued repeatedly against the Bush Administration’s illegal and unethical warrantless wiretapping program and lamented the same administration’s repeated use of the so-called “state’s secrets” privelege.  From barackobama.com:

Secrecy Dominates Government Actions: The Bush administration has ignored public disclosure rules and has invoked a legal tool known as the “state secrets” privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court.

But that was then, and this, as they say, is now.  President Obama apparently now thinks the same “state’s secrets” privelege invoked by the Bush crowd actually is kind of useful after all.  President Obama’s own Department of Justice recently issued a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the NSA by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, claiming that allowing the case to continue would “cause exceptionally grave harm to national security”.

This is exactly the position that the Bush crowd took regarding wiretapping.  Unfortunately, the Obama administration takes it a step further, alleging that the government can be held immune from lawsuits relating to warrantless wiretapping.  It’s something called “sovereign immunity”; in other words, you can’t sue the king for violations of his own laws.

This is shocking and saddening to see.  I expected better from President Obama than this mindless continuation of Bush’s worst mistakes.

But he kept us safe…

A report from the International Committee for the Red Cross on CIA detentions and torture, recently released to the public, has shed the white light of truth on the previous administration’s darkest secrets.

It reads like something from the Nuremberg Trials or the Vietnam era.  It describes the ordeals of fourteen “high value detainees” who were subjected to some of the worst treatment the CIA “interrogators” gave to their prisoners.  In one example, detainee Abu Zubaydah described a fairly standard transfer flight:

“The detainee would be made to wear a diaper and dressed in a tracksuit.  Earphones would be placed over his ears, through which music would sometimes be played.  He would be blindfolded with at least a cloth tied around the head and black goggles. … He does not know how long the transfer took but, prior to the transfer, he reported being told by his detaining authorities that he would be going on a journey that would last twenty-four to thirty hours.

“The detainee … would usually be transported in a reclined sitting position with his hands shackled in front. …The detainee was not allowed to go to the toilet and if necessary was obliged to urinate and defecate into the diaper.” (ICRC Report, page 7)

Lovely.  I’ve always said that the acid test for whether a given action is torture or not is if we’d put someone on trial for doing it to our people.  This stuff sounds like the worst of the stories from forced-labor camps in Soviet Russia.  And as usual, it’s not the worst.  No, what’s worse is the way the CIA, under the direction of the Bush administration, corrupted the function of doctors in support of its heinous crimes.

“During the course of their detention, detainees described three principal roles for health personnel whom they encountered.  Firstly, there was a direct role in monitoring the ongoing ill-treatment which, in some circumstances, involved the health personnel directly participating while certain methods were used.  Secondly, there was a role in performing a medical check just prior to, and just after, each transfer.  Finally, there was the provision of healthcare, to treat both the direct consequences of ill-treatment detailed in previous sections, and to treat any natural ailments that arose during the prolonged periods of detention.

“… In some cases it was alleged that, based on their assessments, health personnel gave instructions to interrogators to continue, to adjust or to stop particular methods.” (ICRC report, pp. 21-22)

In one case a detainee was told by a doctor, “I look after your body only because we need you for information.”

And you thought Cheney and Bush couldn’t sink any lower.  This almost precisely mirrors the way medical personnel were used by the North Vietnamese on our soldiers.

Don’t give me any shit about “they were trying to kill us” or “those people are the worst of the worst”.  Nothing justifies this – NOTHING.  It offends me as a veteran, and it should offend the honor and morality of every American citizen.  Bush and Cheney led us down the path of immorality, and they need to pay for it.

We should bring them up on charges of war crimes and torture, before someone else does, just to show the world that WE DON’T TOLERATE THIS.

Read the full report here.