Archive for November, 2009
Political Geniuses
Obama just had to get involved in the NY-Sen primary to clear the field for one-term backbench Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. She must be so popular that the general election will be a total walk, right? In what could be one of the most hotly contested Senate races in 2010, former New York City Mayor and [...]
Dr. John Barasso Violates Hippocratic Oath
John Barrasso is not just a Republican Senator from Wyoming, he’s also a doctor. He has a private orthopedic practice, and he also serves as Chief of Staff of the Wyoming Medical Center. He is supposed to use his medical degree to “First, do no harm.” Instead, he chooses to use it to lend false [...]
Changed
Robert Reich: Our private, for-profit health insurance system, designed to fatten the profits of private health insurers and Big Pharma, is about to be turned over to … our private, for-profit health care system. Except that now private health insurers and Big Pharma will be getting some 30 million additional customers, paid for by the [...]
Be Careful What You Brag About
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, is one of the leaders of the charge for comprehensive immigration reform. House Democrats hope to send a bill to President Obama next spring. Here’s Luis Gutierrez, bragging about the proposed bill: Our bill will be to immigration reform what the public option [...]
Serially Principled Opposition To Healthcare Reform
Some people feel that Joe Lieberman‘s opposition to healthcare reform has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with fealty to the health insurance industry. They point to the fact that one of the giants of the industry, Aetna, is headquartered in Connecticut. They mutter darkly about contributions made by Aetna and Aetna’s [...]
Just Saying…
In the land of Landrieu, Lieberman, and Lincoln, is healthcare reform possible? Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postShare on Facebookshare via RedditShare with StumblersTweet about itBookmark in BrowserTell a friend
The Mother of All Supercollisions
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is up and running again, and physicists are drooling at the prospect of the insights they are poised to gain into the basic mysteries of matter. (And dark matter, and antimatter, too, for that matter.) Scientists moved Saturday to prepare the world’s largest atom smasher for exploring the depths of matter [...]
Health Insurance Factoids
According to a North Carolina Institute of Medicine study (pdf): Massachusetts is not included in the study. (edited) The number of people without health insurance went up between 2007 and 2009 in 47 out of the other 49 states. The other two states showed no change. In 2009, there are 15 states in which the [...]
Rewarding Recalcitrancy?
Yesterday, Matt bemoaned Democrats’ total inability to enforce party discipline, not even on make-or-break votes on key legislation: They can enforce party discipline by stripping recalcitrant Dems of chairmanships and withholding campaign funds. It’s not just that we don’t enforce party discipline. Recalcitrant Democrats seem to believe they have something to gain from threatening to [...]
The Brink Of A Crucial Preliminary Victory
Breaking News from the NYT (Note: The story this link points to has been totally re-written since I quoted it. There is no acknowledment anywhere of this fact. That doesn ‘t exactly conform to industry best practices. Shame on the NYT!): Senate Democrats moved to the brink of a crucial preliminary victory on major health [...]