Tag: Health Care Reform

Tea Baggers Exposed Gaming the Digg System

Trish

digg

Here’s a story we doubt you’ll see reported on FOX News. AlterNet recently completed a year-long investigation into so-called “gaming the system” at the content aggregator, Digg. A Yahoo group calling itself the Digg Patriots (whose site has since been taken down) figured out how to rig Digg’s voting. If you don’t know, at Digg and many similar sites, you can vote for the stories you want to see featured prominently, or in this case, those you want “buried.” As AlterNet reported:

It’s easier to tell you what the group is against than what it’s for: Obama, progressives, diplomacy, health care reform, immigrants, science, the separation of church and state, acknowledgment of human-induced climate change, the government, pro-choice protections, public schools, and higher education. They also claim to believe Obama is a Muslim and a socialist, and that he was born in Kenya.

Literally thousands of stories have already been artificially removed from Digg due to this group. When a story is buried, it is removed from the upcoming section (where it is usually at for ~24 hours) and cannot reach the front page, so by doing this, this one group is removing the ability of the community as a whole to judge the merits or interest of these stories on their own (in essence: censoring content).

The immensity of the impact is commensurate with the reach of Digg. Again, according to Alternet:

It is ranked 50th among US websites by Alexa (117th in the world), by far the most influential social media site…Digg generates around 25 million page views per month, over one third of the page views of the NY Times. Front page stories regularly overwhelm and temporarily shut down websites in a process called the “Digg Effect.”

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Verbatim

Trish

While former half-term governor Palin is certainly an expert in not being vetted, we put our trust in the judgment of the American people who rejected not only the broken policies she and Republicans continue to call for, but also this very kind of childish politics she continues to engage in.

DNC Press Secretary Hari Sevugan, commenting on Sarah Palin’s statement that Pres. Obama is not up to the task of being president, despite 18 months of proof to the contrary. Even as Pres. Obama has pulled the country back from the brink of Republican-induced economic collapse, succeeded where the last eight presidents failed at starting genuine health care reform, reversed Bush policies on torture, murder, mutilation, and humiliation of individuals in the custody of officers or agents of the federal government, and signed a strategic arms treaty with Russia that reduces both of our nuclear arsenals by one-third (without even being able to see the Russian shore), Palin said, “Some of this though is a result of he not having much experience and then a complicit media and maybe some voters who chose to not to allow him to be vetted very closely.”

Verbatim

Trish

I’ll have to look into it.

— Response by Florida governor candidate Rick Scott to a questioner on the campaign trail who asked what Scott would do about Pres. Obama’s birth certificate, and whether he feels that Obama’s name can legally be placed on the 2012 ballot. By indulging “birther” fantasies, Scott aligned himself with the most extreme rightwing elements. Scott was CEO of HCA/Columbia Healthcare until he was given a choice to resign or face criminal charges for his role in defrauding the government of millions of Medicare/Medicaid dollars. He now runs the Solantic chain of urgent care clinics, which serve mainly uninsured patients, and is one of the principle funding sources behind the anti-healthcare reform campaign.

Irony on Parade: Tea Party Hotheads Turn on One of the Men Who Invented Them

Trish

RickScott
Rick Scott, the light of crazy ablaze in his eyes
Be careful what you provoke, Tea Party exploiters. Florida governor hopeful Rick Scott recently discovered it’s one thing to gin up the teabagging crowds, and something else to be on the receiving end of all that anger.

Scott made millions as CEO of Columbia/HCA. The hospital chain founded by the Frist family (as in former Senate majority leader Bill Frist) swallowed competitors in the ’90s by dictating terms to suppliers. They’d merge with most of the hospitals in a given area, then tell vendors how much they wanted to pay for products. If a vendor balked, they simply switched to a lower bidder, leaving the first one with nobody to sell to. One of the repercussions of this strategy was the trend toward labor outsourcing by American companies, with medical product suppliers moving facilities to Mexico in order to meet pricing demands.

A “shouting, finger-pointing” crowd demands an explanation

Columbia was found guilty in 2000 of bilking Medicare and Medicaid in a massive, concerted, company-wide fraud effort under Scott. The chain was fined $1.7 billion, the largest penalty ever, and Scott was forced to resign or face criminal charges. He soon bounced back, founding the Solantic chain of urgent care clinics, which mainly serves the uninsured. Scott and several confederates have been the big bucks behind the so-called “astroturf” (meaning it looks like grassroots but it isn’t) opposition to health care reform.

Which brings us to the ironic position in which he recently found himself at a Tea Party gathering on the campaign trail.

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Poll: Plurality Now Supports Health-Care Law

Jon Ponder

AP-Gfk poll:

The nation remains divided, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed to the president’s signature domestic accomplishment.

Still, the shift in public sentiment was significant. Opposition to the overhaul increased after Congress passed it in March. And last month, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. But the latest survey found the strongest backing for the health care plan since the AP-GfK poll began asking in September…

The poll found support increased since May among men (from 36 percent to 46 percent), people in their prime working years (from 35 percent to 49 percent among 30-49 year-olds) and Republicans (from 8 percent to 17 percent.) The uptick among Republicans comes even as party leaders are calling for the law’s repeal.

The changes coincide with a concerted effort by the Obama administration, congressional Democrats and their allies to sell the immediate benefits of the law.

Breaking News from Florida: Crist Vetoes Ultrasound Bill

Trish

ultrasoundThe Friday afternoon news dump, wherein someone tries to hide their major, super important news in the hustle and bustle and happy hours of a dawning weekend, was the tool of choice as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA) announced his veto of a horrifically bad piece of Republican legislation.

Known as the “ultrasound bill,” the law would have required women seeking an abortion to first pay for and obtain an ultrasound test, in which they would either have to view the embryo or listen to a doctor describe it. Tests range from several hundred dollars to $1,500, and would effectively block the abortion option for many, if not most, women.

In his veto statement, Crist, who earlier this week signaled his intention by removing harsh anti-abortion language from his campaign web site, acknowledged a woman’s right to decide.

…personal views should not result in laws that unwisely expand the role of government and coerce people to obtain medical tests or procedures that are not medically necessary…There are many medical or fiscal barriers that could be placed upon a woman in order to prevent her from following through on her constitutionally protected decision to end a pregnancy. However, such measures do not change hearts, which is the only true and effective way to ensure that a new life coming into the world is loved, cherished, and receives the care that is deserved.

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O’Reilly Sanctimoniously Denies GOP Senator’s Charge That Fox Disinformed Viewers with Claim Medical Uninsured Will Go to Prison – Cue Video of 20-Plus Instances of Fox Propagandists, Including O’Reilly, Making That Exact Claim

Jon Ponder

It’s hard to find someone to root for in this one. Bill O’Reilly, the leading right-wing propagandist on Fox before they hired Glenn Beck versus Sen. Tom Coburn, R-0kla., a member of the Family, the scary Christian corporatist cult that owns the infamous C Street house on Capitol Hill.

In the video, O’Reilly chastises Sen. Coburn because, at a town hall meeting earlier this month, the senator had corrected a constituent who had expressed concern that under the health-care reform law people who didn’t buy health insurance would go to prison. Coburn, rightly assuming she’d heard the jail-for-the-uninsured canard on Fox, warned her not to believe everything she heard on the network and encouraged her to get her news from a variety of sources. In the interview, O’Reilly insists that he had researched transcripts and that no one on Fox had ever said the uninsured would be imprisoned.

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Now Senate Republicans Are Fighting to Keep Cornhusker Kickback and Leave Seniors’ Medicare ‘Donut Hole’ in Place

Jon Ponder

In the upside down world that is the United States Senate, Republicans and conservative Democrats have vowed to kill the “fix-it” amendment to the health-care reform law passed by the House on Sunday.

What this latest GOP flip-flop underscores is that conservatives really do not care about Americans’ health-care. They are motivated by solely by politics and their desire to inflict as much damage as they can onto the president and his party.

As Sen. John McCain, ever-increasingly now the Senate’s resident curmudgeon, put it, “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” he told an Arizona radio station. “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

Elsewhere he said: “We’ll challenge it every place we can … We’ll fight everywhere.”

Finally McCain added: “‘Get off my lawn!”

But in their efforts to kill the amendment, conservatives are doing a complete about-face. Killing the amendment will let stand special deals to states, including Florida and Nebraska — the latter being the “Cornhusker Kickback” — which Republicans have lambasted since they were included in the Senate version last year.

Even conserva-Dem Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska — who in December traded his vote on the reform bill for the Cornhusker Kickback for his state — says he will vote against the fix-it amendment, meaning he’s now against the very backroom deal he sold his vote for three months ago.

Another provision in the amendment would close the “donut hole” in Medicare drug coverage. It seems likely that senators in states with lots of retirees — like Arizona where McCain is up for reelection this year — would think twice about preserving this product of Bush-era ineptitude that makes thousands of seniors choose between buying food and or paying for medicine.

What this latest GOP flip-flop underscores is that conservatives really do not care about Americans’ health-care. They are motivated solely by politics and their desire to inflict as much damage as they can onto the president and his party.

But it’s foolhardy moves like this — coming out to oppose elements of the bill, like the Cornhusker Kickback, that they demonized — that puts them at risk of being unmasked before their own voters as what they are: craven politicians who care more about their own careers than they do the health and welfare of the American people.

LYLAS: Nuns Defy Bishops to Support Health Care Reform

Trish

nunsProving they are women first and subservient doormats to bishops…not at all, a group representing 59,000 nuns has fired off a letter to Congress in support of health care reform.

“Despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions,” said the letter signed by 60 leaders of women’s religious orders. “It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments … in support of pregnant women. This is the real pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it.”

Bishops, a pretty much one-issue group, object to health care reform because they say that in addition to other medical services, it will also improve access to abortions. Were there any other things to take into account? If you’re a bishop, probably not. But the nuns thought of one or two.

“…this isn’t a question of faith and morals,” said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social activism lobby. “We are the ones who work every day with people who are suffering because they don’t have health care. We cannot turn our backs on them, so for us, health care reform is a faith-based response to human need.”

If Congress only had the courage of these sisters, we’d have been done with all this dithering months ago.