So Sad

A new Rasmussen poll shows that Americans favor waterboarding the underwear bomber by almost a 2 to1 margin.

So sad!

Be Afraid...

Be very afraid.

But of what?

Well, as the graph below shows, you should be much more afraid of dying due to lack of health insurance than terrorism.

For more, read this.

16 people died due to terrorism in 2009.
45,000 people died due to lack of insurance in 2009.

Pay More, Die Earlier

Here is an interesting figure that I picked up over at Angry Bear.

This figure compares healthcare cost per person (left side), life expectancy (right side), and number of doctor visits per year (line thickness).

The slope of the line relates cost per year to life expectancy -- low cost, high life expectancy gives positive slope.

The color of the line indicates if the country has universal health care -- blue for yes, red for no. There are only two red lines, the US and Mexico.

A couple of things to note:

1. The US line is way different from all the others. VERY high cost, relatively low life expectancy, and very thin line. We are paying much more than everyone else, living less years than most, and rarely going to the doctor.
2. Japan seems to getting one of the best values. Cost 1/3 of the US cost. Life expectancy about 5 years more, and they see to doctor about monthly.

So, our private insurance plan which practically every other nation in the world has discarded, gives us what? It costs more. We live fewer years. We rarely see a doctor.

But, our healthcare executives get to fly around in private jets. We are rewarding them for THIS???

Merry Christmas

More Republican Crazy Talk

Newt say that when the Republicans take back the House in 2010 (crazy talk number 1), Bachmann will become a committee chairman (crazy talk number 2).

I think he is just trying to put a move on her.

What?!? Republicans and Conservative Democrats Sucking On The Public Tit?

From an interesting article at Truthdig.com titled: "Michelle Bachmann: Welfare Queen"

"Republicans and conservative Democrats bitch and moan about the allegedly Marxist underpinnings of universal health care and do everything they can to deny struggling Americans access to social services. Meanwhile, many of them profit off taxpayers in a massive welfare program."

The massive welfare program? Farm Subsidies! How much have their families collected between 1995 and 2006?

Bachmann -- $251,973

Chuck Grassley -- $1,000,000

Sam Brownback -- $500,000

Max Baucus -- $250,000

Blanche Lincoln -- $715,000

Stephanie Sandlin -- $844,725

Socialism? It depends on who gets the money.

"According to 11 years’ worth of Environmental Working Group data that tracks $200 billion in subsidies, the wealthiest 10 percent of “farmers” have collected 75 percent of the money. That’s exactly the kind of socialism that Rep. Bachmann and her elite ilk like."

No To Military Spending

The more the republicans bitch and moan and lie and distort about healthcare, the more I like the bill. I mean, after all, if they are getting so upset about it that they would try to delay the vote on the military appropriations bill, there must be some good things in it.

So now, not only don't the republicans care if almost 45,000 people died each year because they don't have health insurance, they don't care about the troops either. They are willing to cut off military funding to satisfy their corporate insurance bosses.

I Feel Like Hobbes

McCain Is Having Another "Senior Moment"

Many of you have already seen the video of Al Franken telling LIEberman that he has used up is 10 minutes of speaking time. If not, you can view it here. Then McCain gets up and says that in all his years in the Senate, he has never seen "a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks."

Well, Senator McCain is having a little memory problem. As reported by Think Progress, "McCain has engaged in the very same behavior that he was criticizing Franken for yesterday."

Here is the exchange:

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator’s time has expired.

Mr. DAYTON. I ask for unanimous consent that I have 30 seconds more to finish my remarks.

Mr. McCAIN. I object.

McCain was eventually overruled, but he was trying to stop Mr. Dayton from speaking by refusing to give him an addition 30 seconds.

Selective memory -- isn't it a great thing.

Where Is The Good?

With no single payer, no public option, and no Medicare for 55 - 64 year olds, what is left for the people. The insurance companies have:

• Kept their anti-trust exemption
• Will be able to sell insurance across state lines thereby avoiding stricter state regulations
• Charge older people up to 4 times what they charge younger people
• Charge more for pre-existing conditions
• Can set annual limits

Keith can say it better than I can.

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And we have to buy it! Well, actually not all of us have to. Just those of us under 65. The rest of us get that socialized, single payer, popular, efficient government insurance program Medicare.

The insurance companies? They are in hog heaven. They have won. They have gotten what they want. They are in good shape. Just listen to what Wendel Potter (ex-insurance company executive) has to say about it.

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And I should support this insurance reform why?

Republican's Don't Let Facts Get In The Way

Al Franken says “We are entitled to our own opinions; we are not entitled to our own facts,” He goes on to say "...my good friends from the other side, say things that are not based on fact." I call them liars, but Al is more polite than I am. Listen to him below rip into John Thune (R-SD).

Soundgarden Got It Right

I am about fed up. What with the continuing republican obstructionism, the Democrats acting like a bunch of pussies, and now with it looking like the Democrats are going to cave in to Lieberman, of all people (the fucking asshole that he is), the band Soundgarden with their song Ty Cobb says what I am feeling right about now.

Listen for yourself:



If you can't understand the words, here are the lyrics.

Corruption

Kissy Kissy

You gotta love Alan Grayson. He does it again. Tonight on Hardball he said,

"I remember Bush Jr. kissing Prince Abdullah on the cheek and then holding his hand for an extended period of time. Maybe if he'd let him get to second base then gas would be a dollar a gallon."

No wonder Bush flew bin Laden's family out of the US after 9/11 when all other flights were grounded.

It's a wonder that the GOP is not rushing over to Copenhagen for the UN climate conference. After all, Prostitutes in Copenhagen have reportedly announced plans to offer their services for free to UN climate summit delegates.

David Vitter should be leading the charge. After paying for it for so long, he should be glad to get some freebies.

GOP Is Now Number 3

As reported in a Rasmussen poll here,

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Rasmussen also reports that Sarah Palin has a higher favorable rating the Obama, so....maybe we should put too much stock in Rasmussen, or watch out for Sarah in 2012!

Good Question, Good Answer

The public option may be getting some more massaging in the Senate and it may be turned into a Swiss-type option. Bob Cesca over at his Awesome Blog gives a good answer to Jon Cohn's question:

If liberals give yet more ground on the public option, what should they ask in return?

Of the Swiss-type option, he says:

"The Swiss Plan has to be based on Medicare rates, the plan has to be available within a year and anyone can buy into it regardless of employment status. In other words, the premiums are based on Medicare premiums and it's a free choice plan. So it'd be like a robust public option, but with private insurance companies providing the risk and the government keeping them regulated and honest."

Good Answer!

Where's My Paper?

George Washington over at Washington's Blog has written an interesting article about why the corporate media is pro-war. I want to highlight on portion of it because it is indicative of what is happening across the board in Corporate America.

We've heard many comments about businesses getting too big to fail. Certainly this seems to be the case for the financial industry. Look at all the money, tax money, your money and my money, that has been funneled into it because we were afraid to let them fail. (When I say we, I mean our government and politicians.)

Too big to fail seems to be happening to the corporate media also. Look at the chart below.

We have gone from about 50 corporations in the 1980's to now only 5 corporations that control the majority of the U.S. media.

"Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth."

Is it any surprise that we don't have the investigative journalism that we use to have? And these corporations are hardly the bastions of liberalism although the right would like to portray them as such.