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March 13, 2010
Nine votes — that's all that are now needed for the Senate to accept a public option, as the House has already done. Nine:
The number of senators who have publicly committed to the option is striking because the momentum has come without any organized effort by Senate leadership or from the White House.
Polls show Americans want a public option. The House has already voted for one, and 41 senators say they would vote for one if given the chance.
You would think just a little push from the president is all we'd need to put actual "reform" into health care reform.
Your move, Mr. President.
Posted on 03/13/10 by
abi
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March 10, 2010
The Israeli interior minister has apologized for the timing of the announcement, made while VP Biden was visiting Israel, that it has approved an additional 1,600 units to be built in the Ramat Shlomo "settlement" in East Jerusalem.
If you believe that the apology was sincere, and that Israel had no intention of proving to the world once again that the mighty U.S. of A. is its big, dumb, slobbering lapdog, I have some prime coastal property to sell you in the Gaza Strip.
Was it a deliberate slap in the face? You bet'cha. But Juan Cole puts it in the correct perspective:
In my view, it doesn't really matter if Netanyahu's slap in the face to Biden derails the proposed indirect talks. The Likud-led government has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state, and there is now no place to put one.
To illustrate the point, Cole includes this graphic of the Incredible Shrinking Palestine:
Cole goes on to expose the 800-lb gorilla in the room that most Americans simply pretend isn't there:
Israel-Palestine has unalterably entered the era of Apartheid (actually something worse), and it will spell both the end of dreams of peace in our generation, and probably over time the end of Israel as Netanyahu's generation knew it.
Posted on 03/10/10 by
abi
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March 07, 2010
Where have I heard this before:
This country could solve ninety percent of its problems by the simple act of getting money out of politics and thereby (re)turning the American government into being an instrument for the benefit of the public, rather than a servant for aggregating wealth on behalf of a predatory plutocracy.
Oh yeah, here. And here and here and here and here and here and here and here.
Posted on 03/07/10 by
abi
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March 06, 2010
Well, Hell may be freezing over, but I agree with Glenn Beck on this one.
Media Matters for America claims that Beck and other right-wingers played a "doctored audio" of Harry Reid saying this:
Today is a big day in America, only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.
Beck didn't "doctor" that statement. He didn't have to — those are Reid's exact words.
Sure, we know what Reid meant to say — just like we know what he meant to say when he characterized presidential candidate Barack Obama as "light-skinned" with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
The problem with Harry is that he's been a Washington insider for 28 years, with 24 of those years spent oh-so-pleasantly as a privileged member of elite Senate society. He's forgotten that all those votes and bills and back-room deals and political calculations have real impact on real people.
The problem with Harry and so many other of our so-called representatives in Congress is that they're way out of touch with the rest of us.
Posted on 03/06/10 by
abi
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February 27, 2010
Did Thursday's health reform summit leave you cold? Or more like out in the cold?
If so, here's why:
Health care interests have given $46.6 million in campaign donations since 2005 to the 21 lawmakers in today's bipartisan health care summit — including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va. — and to the summit's host, President Obama, according to a new report.
If these pols, including the Dems and Obama, were truly serious about reform that could save hundreds of billions of dollars while providing quality health care to ALL Americans, they would be talking about expanding Medicare to every citizen.
If they wanted to compromise and continue to allow billions in profits for the insurance industry while still saving tens of billions in health costs, they would be dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on a strong public option.
Neither is going to happen. Instead, at best, we'll get a handful of regulations that insurance industry dollars and lobbyists will no doubt find loopholes for sooner than you can cry uncle. And if we get a public option at all, it will be no more than a fig leaf over the obscene reality that insurers will continue to have their way with us while dragging down the economy — an injustice made possible with the full knowledge and complicity of the pols around that table.
Posted on 02/27/10 by
abi
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February 06, 2010
According to a Gallup Poll, "More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of 'socialism,' while 58% have a negative image."
But it's still the scariest word of these:
Posted on 02/06/10 by
abi
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January 31, 2010
Another voice out of the reality-based community on the "success" of Massachusetts'
almost-kinda-sorta universal health care "reform" — this time from the state's treasurer:
Health care reform has not been a Massachusetts miracle. The state’s new health care system has been fraught with problems from the start, from excessive costs to taxpayers to unaffordable insurance options for families...The reform has placed an enormous hardship on middle-class residents who do not qualify for the state-subsidized Commonwealth Care program, as high premiums, deductibles, and bill payments — even for the least expensive plans — have rendered these options unaffordable.
And remember, those hardships on middle-class residents are imposed on them by state mandate.
Posted on 01/31/10 by
abi
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January 30, 2010
That [Howard Zinn] was considered radical says way more about this society than it does about him.
Posted on 01/30/10 by
abi
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As President Obama likes to say, let's be clear: The election of Scott Brown didn't sound the death knell for health care reform. Obama and the Democrats put reform on life support right from the start by never giving single-payer serious consideration. That life-support came in the form of the public option.
But over the summer and fall, the politicians started hacking away at the life support machinery, until all that remained was the expansion of Medicare to 55-and-older Americans — essentially eliminating the public option for everyone except people 55 to 64 years old.
But Joe Lieberman pulled the plug on even that, and finally, on December 13th, 2009, Lieberman pronounced reform dead.
Sure, we still may get some needed regulations on the more egregious practices of private, for-profit health insurers. But as long as the so-called people's representatives in Washington fail to provide an effective alternative to the inefficiencies, bureaucracies, and bottom-line self-interest of those insurers, reform simply isn't possible.
Posted on 01/30/10 by
abi
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When you look up the word "leadership" in the dictionary, you should find this link in the definition.
Maybe the Massachusetts slap in the face was just what Barack Obama needed.
Posted on 01/30/10 by
abi
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