General News

How Vampires Think: Goldman Sachs on Health Care Reform

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In a comment to Rabbi Lerner’s post Kucinich Denounces Health Care Sell Out by House Dems, Jill Schmidt asked:
I don’t get why insurance companies aren’t for a bill that will get them 21 million more clients. If anyone out there gets it, please reply. Jill poses an excellent question that is shared by hard-working, thoughtful Americans from coast to coast. Fortunately, Goldman Sachs revealed the answer in a perverse ten page report posted in its entirety by Huff-Po reporter Sam Stein. (Kudos to Sam for his excellent work!)
The Goldman report projects Earnings Per Share (or EPS, a measure of the profits allocated to an individual share) for the five largest insurance companies currently traded on Wall Street: Cigna, Humana, Well Point, United Health and Aetna.

Politics & Society

Pushing Obama to the Left

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Much has been made of a so-called “Republican Comeback” by rightwing pundits and the mainstream media. If they are to be believed, Obama’s overly liberal policies have been rejected by the independent (i.e., suburban and ex-urban white) voters who were responsible for his victory in the first place. This analysis is blatantly false. And if we fall for it, we will fail to take advantage of a marvelous opportunity to push the White House to the left. Professional campaign managers make use of lists of “super-voters” when organizing their call and knock lists: they reason that the most reliable voters, their base, are the voters who turn out in off-years to vote for their party’s candidates for local posts such as school board, state legislature, etc., and target national turn-out efforts at these voters.

Health

Why is the Health Reform Start Date 2013?

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I posted an action diary yesterday morning telling readers how they can become involved in the fight to pass a public option (with links). I encourage my readers to pressure Harry Reid to pass a public option. Deborah Phelan asked a great question in the comment thread that merits a complete response. She asks:
One other issue I think needs addressing in this is why none of this legislation (correct me if I’m wrong) is going into effect until 2013….. That is 4 years away!

General News

Action Diary: Help Pass the Public Option Today!

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The battle for health care reform remains fluid. Various proposals have been working their way through Congress. At each stage of the process, a different sort of concerted action is required to insure a meaningful bill and a robust public option. We have reached another critical juncture, and your help is badly needed. After sitting on its hands for months, Senate Finance finally passed a bill out of committee last week, enabling the process to move forward.

Media Tools

Bloggers Unravel British Gag Order in Hours!

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Yesterday, I wrote about an unusual British gag order in a diary entitled “Free Speech News Round-Up.” The UK Guardian had mysteriously reported that a parlaimentarian had asked a question that was tabled until the following week. According to the October 12 issue of The Guardian:
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found. The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament.

Environment

Rochester Police Attack Peaceful Student Protest and Other Stories (Free Speech News Roundup)

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Today’s post: a news round-up of noteworthy stories that are not being widely reported elsewhere in the mainstream media or blogging world. Police attack peaceful protesters in Rochester. This BlipTV episode appearing on buzzflash was reported by all over the board. A small cohort of students gathered in a park in Rochester to protest military recruiting practices in public schools and to demand an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. About a hundred young people waving colorful banners chanted and banged on drums while marching in a peaceful and orderly fashion down a street.

General News

Rightwing Religious Gibberish

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[WARNING! DO NOT TRY TO LINK TO CONSERVAPEDIA FROM DAILY KOS, HUFFINGTON POST OR THIS DIARY…A BLOCK MIGHT GO UP…maybe its a coincidence, maybe not, but I can’t access the site from this computer anymore after linking. I will type out the address so you can cut and paste into the toolbar…]
Remember Phyllis Schlafly, the Queen of conservative religious “feminism” from the late 60s through the 80s? Well she’s got a son (Andy, BSE, JD, ABCDEFG), who is funnier than David Letterman. Except the poor guy is trying to be serious.

General News

Congressman Lujan Speaks on Medicare for All

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I had the opportunity to interview New Mexico Congressman Ben Ray Lujan in his Washington office on Thursday September 17. Limited internet access while traveling, unfamiliarity with mp3 files, Rosh Hashanah and the complete failure of our household plumbing conspired to prevent me from posting the interview and transcript until today. I apologize in advance for the poor sound quality. And I must add the following disclaimer: I am not a hard-nosed professional reporter, but rather a constituent of Congressman Lujan. I like the policies he supports.