gr8fuldaniel

Voting-machine firm merger investigated - Florida - MiamiHerald.com

Voting-machine firm merger investigated -

Florida
- MiamiHerald.com: "BY MARC CAPUTO
HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is conducting an anti-trust investigation of a voting-machine company merger that would create a near-monopoly over the levers of democracy in Florida and much of the United States.

McCollum's office has issued at least six subpoenas covering every major voting-machine company as part of a civil investigation of Election Systems & Software's $5 million acquisition of Diebold Inc.'s elections division -- a merger that would give a private company too much power over the machines used to castvotes, voting-rights groups say.

``Our office engaged in this issue because anti-competitive behavior can seriously harm consumers,'' McCollum said in a written statement. ``Competitive behavior encourages the best products be available to consumers, including technology, particularly in a market as sensitive as the voting systems market.''

Under the state's 1980 anti-trust law, McCollum could persuade a court to levy fines against ES&S or prevent the company from operating in Florida. By next year, the company is expected to be the exclusive provider of voting machines and services in 65 of the 67 counties in Florida, the nation's most important swing state.

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Dose: "'Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over.'
-- White House economic adviser Larry Summers, 12/13/09
'Of course not.'
-- White House economic adviser Christina Romer, asked if the recession is over, 12/13/09"

t r u t h o u t | Thousands Demand Closure of Fort Benning's School of the Americas

Paranoid shift

Paranoid shift
George H.W. Bush and Conspiracy Fact

The Curse of Gold | Human Rights Watch

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help: "BlogThis!��<-- drag this link to your browser's Links bar"

AA 77 Cockpit door NEVER OPENED

American Airlines Flight 77 Cockpit door was NEVER opened during the flight.

Either the "Hijackers" magically passed through solid metal door or...

Congressman Olsen LIED about talking to his wife (Cell Phone technology would NOT have allowed that anyway)about the pilots moved to rear of plane. Who was really flying the plane. Remote pilot or Kamakaze? Either way, it looks like friendly fire, false flag with White House Stand Down.

COCKPIT DOOR NEVER OPENED DURING FLIGHT means Afghanistan War is a FARCE and Obama needs to return Nobel PEACE Prize. He is privvy to the facts.

Obama is a greasy oily republican apologist and a war monger.

STORY:
http://pilotsfor911truth.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=18405

Northern Command: the Pentagon's "Homeland Defense" agency

Palin event requests ‘English-only’ reporters | Raw Story

GOPers want Franken to defend them in opposing anti-rape amendment | Raw Story

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators
Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We applaud these courageous men! Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator's phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator's contact page. We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Senators from states in which both senators voted nay get a pink background!

New! A fan-created rape support map has been added to the bottom of this page! The numbers on each state are electoral votes.

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

John McCain (R-AZ)

Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Mike Crapo (R-ID)

James Risch (R-ID)

Sam Brownback (R-KS)

Pat Roberts (R-KS)

Jim Bunning (R-KY)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

David Vitter (R-LA)

Thad Cochran (R-MS)

Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Kit Bond (R-MO)

Mike Johanns (R-NE)

John Ensign (R-NV)

Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Richard Burr (R-NC)

Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

John Thune (R-SD)

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Bob Corker (R-TN)

John Cornyn (R-TX)

John Barrasso (R-WY)

Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators

Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We applaud these courageous men! Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator's phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator's contact page. We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Senators from states in which both senators voted nay get a pink background!

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators

Republicans for Rape - Our Legislators

Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We applaud these courageous men! Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator's phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator's contact page. We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Senators from states in which both senators voted nay get a pink background!

The Raw Story | Gays 'will never go to heaven': cardinal

The Raw Story | Gays "will never go to heaven": cardinal
Since when do pedophiles decide who gets to go to heaven?

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder - Bloomberg.com: "The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank."

Attorney: Woods' wife asked neighbors to call 911 - Yahoo! News

Attorney: Woods' wife asked neighbors to call 911 - Yahoo! News

See the contridiction?

"WINDERMERE, Fla. – An attorney for the neighbors who dialed 911 after Tiger Woods' car crash last week says they saw no indication the golfer was beaten or driving under the influence.
Attorney Bill Sharpe said Tuesday that Linda Adams and her adult sons Jarius and Jerome Adams went outside their Orlando-area home after hearing the crash.
They found Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, upset about her husband's injuries and she asked them to call 911. Sharpe says Woods appeared woozy and had scratches on his face."

Michael Moore: An Open Letter To President Obama On Afghanistan

Michael Moore: An Open Letter To President Obama On Afghanistan

Snippet:

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

Professor advises underwater homeowners to walk away from mortgages - latimes.com

Professor advises underwater homeowners to walk away from mortgages - latimes.com

Go ahead. Break the chains. Stop paying on your mortgage if you owe more than the house is worth. And most important: Don't feel guilty about it. Don't think you're doing something morally wrong.

That's the incendiary core message of a new academic paper by Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis."

White contends that far more of the estimated 15 million U.S. homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages should stiff their lenders and take a hike.

Doing so, he suggests, could save some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars that they "have no reasonable prospect of recouping" in the years ahead. Plus the penalties are nowhere near as painful or long-lasting as they might assume, he says.

"Homeowners should be walking away in droves," White said. "But they aren't. And it's not because the financial costs of foreclosure outweigh the benefits."

Sure, credit scores get whacked when you walk away, he acknowledges. But as long as you stay current with other creditors, "one can have a good credit rating again -- meaning above 660 -- within two years after a foreclosure."

Better yet, homeowners can default "strategically": Buy all the major items they'll need for the next couple of years -- a new car, even a new house -- just before they pull the plug on their current mortgage lender.

"Most individuals should be able to plan in advance for a few years of limited credit," White said, with minimal disruptions to their lifestyles.

What kind of law school professorial advice is this? Aren't mortgages legal contracts? In so-called anti-deficiency states such as California and Arizona, mortgage lenders have limited or no legal rights to ..........

(cont'd....)

Owners of Toyota's Runaway Cars Upset After Accidents - ABC News

Runaway Toyotas - ABC News

Los Angeles DA: ‘About 100%’ of medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal | Raw Story

Los Angeles DA: ‘About 100%’ of medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal | Raw Story

BlogNote:
I signed the Initiative petition this week.
I just wrote 3 paragraphs explaining why I (a recovered alcoholic/addict) would do that.
All my writing was lost to a server error.
I am too mad right now to do it all over again.

Parents of "chunky" infant weigh in on health insurance reform - The Denver Post

Parents of "chunky" infant weigh in on health insurance reform - The Denver Post

GRAND JUNCTION — Alex Lange is a chubby, dimpled, healthy and happy 4-month-old.

But in the cold, calculating numbered charts of insurance companies, he is fat. That's why he is being turned down for health insurance. And that's why he is a weighty symbol of a problem in the health care reform debate.

Insurance companies can turn down people with pre-existing conditions who aren't covered in a group health care plan.

Alex's pre-existing condition — "obesity" — makes him a financial risk. Health insurance reform measures are trying to do away with such denials that come from a process called "underwriting."

"If health care reform occurs, underwriting will go away. We do it because everybody else in the industry does it," said Dr. Doug Speedie, medical director at Rocky Mountain Health Plans, the company that turned down Alex.

By the numbers, Alex is in the 99th percentile for height and weight for babies his age. Insurers don't take babies above the 95th percentile, no matter how healthy they are otherwise.

"I could understand if we could control what he's eating. But he's 4 months old. He's breast-feeding. We can't put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill," joked his frustrated father, Bernie Lange, a part-time news anchor at KKCO-TV in Grand Junction. "There is just something absurd about denying an infant."

Bernie and Kelli Lange tried to get insurance for their growing family with Rocky Mountain Health Plans when their current insurer raised their rates 40 percent after Alex was born. They filled out the paperwork and awaited approval, figuring their family is young and healthy. But the broker who was helping them find new insurance called Thursday with news that shocked them.

" 'Your baby is too fat,' she told me," Bernie said.

Up until then, the Langes had

Doctor Admits Vaccine Is More Deadly Than Swine Flu Itself & Will Not Give It To His Kids

YouTube - Doctor Admits Vaccine Is More Deadly Than Swine Flu Itself & Will Not Give It To His Kids:

YouTube - Zeitgeist - The Movie- Federal Reserve (Part 1 of 5)

Zeitgeist - The Movie- Federal Reserve (Part 1 of 5):

Flu Shot doubtful results

Seasonal Flu Shot Some Help vs. H1N1 Swine Flu?

Oct. 6, 2009 - A small study of Mexican H1N1 swine flu patients suggests that seasonal flu shots might offer some protection against the new flu. But CDC data show no hint of such protection.

Help, quick – I’ve unscrewed the top on a ticking bomb | Jeremy Clarkson - Times Online

Woman paralyzed after getting swine flu shot in 1976 | Latest News | WFAA.com

Woman paralyzed after getting swine flu shot in 1976 | Latest News |
WFAA.com

YouTube - Glenn Beck EXPOSED - Crying On Cue Using Vicks under His Eyes.

Glenn Beck EXPOSED - Crying On Cue Using Vicks under His Eyes.

Joseph Rios: Ronnie Holloway Beating Cop Indicted

The victim is schizophrenic. The pig told him to take off his sweatshirt.WTF?

Deuteronomy, Chapter 22

Deuteronomy, Chapter 22: "22:20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
22:21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you."

Wow, God is evil.

Patient Disputes Mark Up In Medication - cbs4denver.com

Patient Disputes Mark Up In Medication - cbs4denver.com
INSANE MARK UPS!!!!

Scahill: ‘Spineless’ Congress stands up to activists, not criminal contractors | Raw Story

Scahill: ‘Spineless’ Congress stands up to activists, not criminal contractors | Raw Story

FIRE Blackwater NOW!!!

Naomi Klein in Conversation With Michael Moore

HYPOCRITE!! ‘You lie’ Wilson shows two faces on illegal immigration

‘You lie’ Wilson shows two faces on illegal immigration

:snip:

Wilson may have a conflict of interest, however. Two months before he heckled Obama, he introduced legislation to keep Sainey Fatty, an illegal immigrant from Gambia, in the country. Fatty came to the U.S. for school in the early ’90s and lived here for seven years while under a deportation order, according to his friend Bill Cook’s blog.

In his bill, Wilson asks Congress to forgive Fatty’s immigration woes, drop the deportation order against Fatty and allow him to remain in the country legally.

Wilson’s communications director Ryan Murphy told Raw Story in an e-mail that “Congressman Wilson does not support illegal immigrants getting access to a government taxpayer funded health insurance program.” He did not respond to questions about what motivated Wilson to keep Fatty in the country or whether Wilson supports Fatty’s ability to receive medical care in the U.S.

:snip:

Church/State Marriage

LA deputy shoots unarmed man in the back

LA deputy shoots unarmed man in the back:

Feds keep little-used airports in business - USATODAY.com

Feds keep little-used airports in business - USATODAY.com
The Williamsburg airport is the result of an obscure federal program that raises billions of dollars a year through taxes on every airplane ticket sold in the United States. The taxes can add up to 15% to the cost of a flight — or about $29 to a $200 round-trip ticket.

more.....

Americans Back Obama’s Health Goals Even as They Doubt Success - Bloomberg.com

Americans Back Obama’s Health Goals Even as They Doubt Success - Bloomberg.com

according to a Bloomberg News poll.

More than 8 out of 10 people support covering the uninsured, curbing costs, creating an insurance-purchasing exchange, and preventing insurers from dropping coverage or refusing to accept people with preexisting medical conditions. Majorities say employers should have to offer insurance and individuals should be required to have coverage.

Americans are less sure of the plan as a whole. At least half say they don’t think Obama can fulfill promises such as passing legislation that doesn’t add to the federal budget deficit, preserving the Medicare trust fund and producing savings to help pay for drugs for Medicare patients.

“The debate seems to be about money, not about the need for reform,” says J. Ann Selzer, the president of Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm that conducted the poll. “When you look at specific planks, respondents like all of them.”

The poll conducted Sept. 10-14 finds that 48 percent of respondents favor Obama’s plan, while 42 percent oppose it. A Sept. 9 speech the president made to a joint session of Congress didn’t change most minds, as slightly more respondents say it made them more likely rather than less likely to favor the plan.

More.....

� FBI figures: One drug bust in US every 18 second

� FBI figures: One drug bust in US every 18 second: "According to San Francisco Weekly’s calculations, 2008 saw one marijuana arrest every 37 seconds."

PolitiFact | Joe Wilson of South Carolina said Obama lied, but he didn't

NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Annotation: Drugs do not cause the recent alarming crime rates in this country, drug prohibition does.
Abstract: The first result of drug prohibition is crime. Experts estimate that at least half of the violent crime in major U.S. cities is committed by users. Dealers have no nonviolent way to settle disputes with each other. Another effect of prohibition is corruption. Prohibition raises prices which leads to extraordinary profits that are an irresistible temptation to policemen, customs officers, and others. A third result is bringing buyers into contact with criminals. The very illegality of the drug business attracts people who are already criminals. Another effect is the creation of stronger drugs. The more intense the law enforcement, the more potent the drugs. The fifth effect of drug prohibition is the spread of AIDS. About 25 percent of AIDS cases are contracted through intravenous drug use caused by the sharing of needles. A sixth effect of prohibition is the abuse of civil liberties. It now appears that the drug authorities can punish American citizens by seizing their cars or boats, not after indictment or conviction, but after nothing more than an allegation by a police officer. Legalization would not solve all of the drug problems, but it would make the cities safer, make drug use healthier, eliminate a major source of revenue for organized crime, reduce corruption here and abroad, and make honest work more attractive to more city youth.
Main Term(s): Drug legalization

Determined Father Pursues Sept. 11 Lawsuit - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Determined Father Pursues Sept. 11 Lawsuit - CBS Evening News - CBS News: "'I want people to know 9/11 could have been prevented. These Saudi thugs could have been stopped,' Low told CBS News. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers that day were from Saudi Arabia.

Low's 28-year-old daughter, Sara, was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to strike the World Trade Center.

'This is an excruciating thing as a parent to continue this, but I don't have a choice,' Low said. 'I could just not quit until I know I've gone as far as I can go, because I would have her image hanging over me the rest of my life saying, 'You quit, you quit.''"

That's Reassuring | TPM

That's Reassuring | TPM: "Remember the guy who brought the assault rifle to the Obama event down in Arizona? Turns out that the day before the event he attended a fiery anti-Obama sermon by his radical pastor in which his pastor said he was going to 'pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell.'

Justin Elliott has the story.

Also, in case you're concerned, the gun-toter's pastor, Steven Anderson, made clear to Justin in an interview that he'd actually prefer Obama to die in some way other than assassination. 'No where in the sermon did I advocate vigilantism. It's a spiritual battle. I'd rather have him die of natural causes anyway, that way he's not some martyr. I'm praying for him to die just so he gets what he deserves.'"

EclippTV :: Video :: VA Guide Urges Sick Vets To End Their Own Lives

Health Care Fit for Animals (cont'd again)

Op-Ed Columnist - Health Care Fit for Animals - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Potter argues that much tougher regulation is essential. He also believes that a robust public option is an essential part of any health reform, to compete with for-profit insurers and keep them honest.

As a nation, we’re at a turning point. Universal health coverage has been proposed for nearly a century in the United States. It was in an early draft of Social Security.

Yet each time, it has been defeated in part by fear-mongering industry lobbyists. That may happen this time as well — unless the Obama administration and Congress defeat these manipulative special interests. What’s un-American isn’t a greater government role in health care but an existing system in which Americans without insurance get health care, if at all, in livestock pens."

Health Care Fit for Animals -(cont'd)

Op-Ed Columnist - Health Care Fit for Animals - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Potter says he liked his colleagues and bosses in the insurance industry, and respected them. They are not evil. But he adds that they are removed from the consequences of their decisions, as he was, and are obsessed with sustaining the company’s stock price — which means paying fewer medical bills.

One way to do that is to deny requests for expensive procedures. A second is “rescission” — seizing upon a technicality to cancel the policy of someone who has been paying premiums and finally gets cancer or some other expensive disease. A Congressional investigation into rescission found that three insurers, including Blue Cross of California, used this technique to cancel more than 20,000 policies over five years, saving the companies $300 million in claims."

Op-Ed Columnist - Health Care Fit for Animals - NYTimes.com

Health Care Fit for Animals - NYTimes.com: "He flew in corporate jets to industry meetings to plan how to block health reform, he says. He rode in limousines to confabs to concoct messaging to scare the public about reform. But in his heart, he began to have doubts as the business model for insurance evolved in recent years from spreading risk to dumping the risky."

PETA's Ronald McDonald Ad With Andy Dick And Martin Short (VIDEO)

Joseph Moshe - Arrested in LA by FBI for Going Public about Vaccine, page 1

Joseph Moshe - Arrested in LA by FBI for Going Public about Vaccine, page 1
[Weaponized Vaccine?]

Obama May Abandon Effort to Reach Health Deal With Republicans - Yahoo! News

Obama May Abandon Effort to Reach Health Deal With Republicans - Yahoo! News: "Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is likely in September to end Democratic efforts to work with Republicans on health-care legislation and press for a party-line vote if the stalemate on the issue in the U.S. Senate persists, a person close to the White House said."

NOTE:
We should retract all former compromises to the LOSER repugnicons, too. They had a DECADE to fix wealthcare and stood idle ....rather, they enabled BIG PHARMA and Insurance to rip us off. The repugnicons are the enemy. They are terrorists as well, we can see this by the recent admission by Ridge that he raised terror alert levels to favor his god damned party. Fucking PIGS. BURN IN HELL. Today!

SPECTOR'S 'KILLER' COMPLAINT- New York Post

SPECTOR'S KILLER COMPLAINT- New York Post: "'They'd kill you in here for a 39-cent bag of soup!'"

But,Didnt he kill for less?

Ridge says Bush Administration pushed to raise terror alert for re-election

Ridge says Bush Administration pushed to raise terror alert for re-election: "Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was 'blindsided' by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over."

SEE!
I told you cheneybush was the real TERRORIST!!!
Get a fucking ROPE.

Land Patents

Thom Hartmann | News. Opinion. Debate.

BOMBSHELL

Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Mail Online

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been......

;;snip;;

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html#ixzz0OMbzRhPO

The BRAD BLOG

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Glenn Beck's Operation

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Spinal Tap Performance

Drug Compound That Kills Cancer Stem Cells Identified (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Made to Order for CNBC? | TPM

Made to Order for CNBC? | TPM: "We've gotten a hold of some Tea Party planning meeting emails. Here's one that caught our eye. 'We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC.'

How many Town Hall riots has CNBC put in requests for?"

Discover The Secret: May 2009

Money Driven Medicine - Official Website

Money Driven Medicine - Official Website

As featured on "Nightline" tonight

(Opening sequence of the documentary:)

Raw Story � Whistleblower: Insurance firms ‘very much’ behind town hall disruptions

Whistleblower: Insurance firms ‘very much’ behind town hall disruptions

Health insurance companies deserve “a great deal of the blame” for the sometimes violent disruptions to town hall meetings on health care, says a former health insurance company executive turned whistleblower.

Wendell Potter, a former executive with health insurer Cigna who now works as the senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that health insurance companies “are very much behind the town hall disruptions that you see and a lot of the deception that’s going on in terms of disinformation that many Americans, apparently, are believing.”

On her show Monday night, Maddow cited statistics from the Securities and Exchange Commission showing that profits at the US’s ten largest health insurance companies skyrocketed more than 400 percent between 2000 and 2007, from $2.4 billion in 2000 to $12.7 billion in 2007.

“Apparently while they quadrupled their profits, the number of Americans without health insurance grew by 19 percent,” Maddow said.

And she also pointed out that the average total take-home pay for the CEOs of those health insurance companies was $11.9 million each, per year, “while the number of Americans without health insurance, for whom a burst appendix can mean bankruptcy, has gone through the roof.”

Asked why health care costs are going up, Potter told Maddow: “Since 1983 … the amount of money that insurance companies take in in premiums — less and less of that is going to pay medical claims.”

more...

Truthdig - Reports - Nader Was Right: Liberals Are Going Nowhere With Obama

Truthdig - Reports - Nader Was Right: Liberals Are Going Nowhere With Obama: "By Chris Hedges

The American empire has not altered under Barack Obama. It kills as brutally and indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as it did under George W. Bush. It steals from the U.S. treasury to enrich the corporate elite as rapaciously. It will not give us universal health care, abolish the Bush secrecy laws, end torture or “extraordinary rendition,” restore habeas corpus or halt the warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of citizens. It will not push through significant environmental reform, regulate Wall Street or end our relationship with private contractors that provide mercenary armies to fight our imperial wars and produce useless and costly weapons systems."

How the White House’s Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy

How the White House’s Deal With Big Pharma Undermines Democracy

::snip::

"But I also care about democracy, and the deal between Big Pharma and the White House frankly worries me. It’s bad enough when industry lobbyists extract concessions from members of Congress, which happens all the time. But when an industry gets secret concessions out of the White House in return for a promise to lend the industry’s support to a key piece of legislation, we’re in big trouble. That’s called extortion: An industry is using its capacity to threaten or prevent legislation as a means of altering that legislation for its own benefit. And it’s doing so at the highest reaches of our government, in the office of the President."

Frank Rich - Is Obama Punking Us? - NYTimes.com

Frank Rich: Is Obama Punking Us? - NYTimes.com

Yet there is real reason for longer-term worry in the form of a persistent, anecdotal drift toward disillusionment among some of the president’s supporters. And not merely those on the left. This concern was perhaps best articulated by an Obama voter, a real estate agent in Virginia, featured on the front page of The Washington Post last week. “Nothing’s changed for the common guy,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been punked.” She cited in particular the billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks that still “act like they’re broke.”
But this mood isn’t just about the banks, Public Enemy No. 1. What the Great Recession has crystallized is a larger syndrome that Obama tapped into during the campaign. It’s the sinking sensation that the American game is rigged — that, as the president typically put it a month after his inauguration, the system is in hock to “the interests of powerful lobbyists or the wealthiest few” who have “run Washington far too long.” He promised to smite them.

Whistleblower

Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Sibel Edmonds' testimony covered on The Brad Blog

Posted on August 8, 2009 by Richard Renner
To get the latest news on today's deposition testimony by national security whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, I have been reading The Brad Blog. Investigative journalist and commentator Brad Friedman reports that Edmonds was able to testify in response to all the questions. No attorneys from the Department of Justice or the FBI showed up. No court orders prevented the depostion from proceeding. Of particular relevance to Rep. Jean Schmidt's complaint against challenger David Krikorian, Edmonds reportedly confirmed that Schmidt's donors were agents of the Turkish government intent on suppressing public awareness of the Armenian Genocide. However, the Brad Blog reports that Edmonds' testimony went further in showing the extent to which Turkish agents will go. According to The Brad Blog, in one incident, a female Turkish agent allegedly seduced a married female member of Congress who was going to support a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. The Brad Blog reports that the agent recorded the seduction, and then allegedly used it to extort the congresswoman to oppose the resolution.

Council for Secular Humanism

Council for Secular Humanism: "Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God."

gr8fuldaniel

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