I Do Not Feel Appreciably "Better" This 4th Than I Did Last Year At This Time

Not "better" about the direction in which the country seems to be heading in relation to our over-seas militaristic adventurism. I heard this week that Marines had swept into another valley somewhere in Asia. They were setting up "combat outposts" as they went, near "peaceful" villages. I was transported back 40 years, when "combat outposts" were called "fire bases." And the friendly villages were "pacified hamlets." The countries began with different letters--"A" vs "V"--but other than that the song hadn't changed. By even the current regime's rationality, if it worked, even torture would be alright.

I don't feel "better" about the Constitution. It still seems to lie, in tatters, under the shit-encrusted loafers of the new administration as it was under the shit-encrusted boots of the previous one. "We" are still torturing 'detainees,' despite the lies. Preventative detention is official policy. More and more electronic surveillance is being authorized in the name of combating "terrorism," but even with new powers, the authorities have been powerless to prevent the recent outbreaks of right-wing/eliminationist domestic terrorism.

Obviously, I do not feel "better" about the economy. I am retired, on a fixed income, and i saw my tiny retirement nest-egg, acquired only after the last 15 or so years of my many and varied careers, eaten away to less than HALF it's value even a year ago.

I don't feel any better about the steps being undertaken to meet the challenge of global climate change. I am beginning to think nobody will have to political will to do anything to reduce the hazards that our gobal 'life-style' generates in such profusion. It's been well-established for almost half-a-century that these conditions were going to ensue, that there had by then already been enough carbon released to raise the global temperature significantly. I am, if anything, more content than ever that I never reproduced, so that none of my get will be facing these impending disasters of food, water, energy, migration, drought and inevitable warfare.

I do not feel "better" about the prospect that something meaningful will ever b done to resolve the nests of corruption, villainy, greed, mal- and misfeasance that is the zso-called US Health System. The vested interests have far too much power/money/influence. They have the whip-hand, and the smiling, compromising, community organizer doesn't have either the personal stones or the electoral mandate to actually stand up to 'em. Obama beat a remarkably weak GOP ticket, by far too small a margin.

I have more or less by now formalized the notion that has been kicking around in my head for this last year, since it became likely that Obama would be #44:

Obama's main job as President is to make people forget the disasters the last 40 years of proto- and crypto-Fascism have inflicted upon the country, and prepare the way for the next Bush.

Obama beat an incredibly weak GOP ticket by WAY TOO SMALL a margin.

McCain: 70-year-old, demented, tainted, ptsd denier/survivor (a lot like the dry drunk recently departed), morally smudged, ethically challenged, congenital liar,

Paired with the most incredibly inept, indisputably ill-prepared, vapidly vainglorious, unknown parvenu from the boondocks of Alaska, whose own sordid connections discredited even her prior position;

on the heels of EIGHT years of the most obvious, most blatantly partisan manipulation and exploitation, war, terror, and economic collapse...

STILL GOT FORTY SIX PERCENT OF THE FUCKING VOTE?

What is WRONG with this picture?

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Woody's Bloggy Enterprises are going on a short hiatus after tonight.Well, actually, the blogs will stay here whilst Woody and friends embark on a manic, musical, odyssey which might see us dangling a digit or two in the Great Gi-chi-goomi, who knows. I'm leaving Budreau, my sweet but territorial 80-lb pit-bull home, with instructions to keep an eye on things while I'm gone. A week? 10 Days? Two Weeks? Gonna sleep out under some stars. Eat camp food. Drive A LOT of miles. Can you say "ROAD TRIP!!!!!"

Shar-ity: "Si Se 'Bote'"--The Million Can March

At C&L, BlueGal appeals for "sharity":

In case you haven't heard, the Million Can March is a counter protest to the teabagging protest redux scheduled for the Fourth of July. Good luck wi dat, teabaggers.

Since the news cycle is spinning the Missouri legislator who thinks summer nutrition programs for kids de-motivates them, the Million Can March is all the more timely. And should we remind the leading Tea Party advocate in the Senate, David Vitter, that food banks also need donations of disposable diapers?

But seriously, I'm already in the process of cleaning out my pantry and getting some food over to the local food bank.

The idea is to do something positive in response to the Teabagger business. The instigator of this project, Rev. Phat of Les Enrages, points out:

This all started with a vague notion that we should do something more than just have a good laugh at the next round of tea parties scheduled for July 4th. I thought that if teabaggers are so afraid of socialism, maybe we could show 'em socialism on a national scale. And what is more socialistic than sharing our food with others.

And in the spirit of forgiveness, Rev. Phat invites conservatives to provide the drinks: dry packaged drink mixes and other non-perishable beverages are welcome at food banks, too.

For bloggers/webmasters the flash image above is free to copy, and there's a free-use set of non-flash images on Flickr courtesy of Tengrain. There's also a Facebook group (login req.) for those wanting to promote the activism.

Donate a can or two to your local food bank this week. Feeding America has a food bank locator if you need help finding one in your area. Thank you

“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”- - Thomas Paine

On Sibel Edmonds blog today, this heroic naturalized citizen reminds us "home-groaners" of our responsibilities:

Here comes our Fourth of July. Surely what is left of our Bill of Rights is worth celebrating, and just as surely what has been taken away is worth fighting for. So let us enjoy that cold beer, savor that hot dog, and while doing that let us reflect and renew our pledge to fight for those irreplaceable American liberties that have been taken from us; the fight against our ‘real’ foes. Are we prepared to make the same pledge those founding fathers made 233 years ago?

Via Wiki:

Edmonds was fired from her position as a language specialist at the FBI's Washington Field Office in March, 2002, after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals, alleging serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence which, she contended, presented a danger to the United States' security. Since that time, court proceedings on her whistleblower claims have been blocked by the assertion of State Secrets Privilege. On March 29, 2006, she was awarded the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in recognition of her defense of free speech as it applies to the written word.[5]

Both Franklin and Jefferson, two of the smartest guys to whom we attribute the inspiration for the Founding, repeated sentiments like these (the rhyme is Franklin's, I believe): "Those who would be both safe and free desire that which never was, nor ever will be."

Not "If." When": Former Spook Yearns For "The Next Attack"

This sick fuck Michael Scheur, ex of the CIA, provides a very good reason why all the current members of the organization need to be sent to labor camps for re-education.
No you did not mis-hear. Listen again:

"The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States --- because it's gonna take a grassroots, bottom up pressure -- because these politicians prize their offices, prize the praise of the media, and the Europeans. It's an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary."

This bloody-minded, vicious, criminal shitwhistle actually would WELCOME another, even bigger, more horrendous, more destructive, more deadly, more damaging 'terror' attack because in the aftermath the people would demand that the Government re-instate the rule of torture ad violence to preserve their 'safety.'

Now watch while Glenn Beck nods and agrees as Scheuer asserts that the only way to "save" the US (from illegal immigrants, of course) is for Osama bin Laden to succeed in detonating a weapon on American soil.

BlueGirl posted these musings on Antimedius this morning:

Being a sane person, I do not tune in to the Glenn Beck weep-fest. When he or one of his guests does or says something outrageous, I get it the next day from the blogosphere, so yesterday when he hosted former CIA official Michael Scheuer, I missed it when the guest and the host were pining for another massive, 9/11-type attack in order to advance their political philosophy.

His exact words were "The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States --- because it's gonna take a grassroots, bottom up pressure -- because these politicians prize their offices, prize the praise of the media, and the Europeans. It's an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary."

What a sick, twisted individual Scheuer is - and Beck, too, because he didn’t even feign shock. He just nodded along in agreement, like the dope he so obviously is.

These fringe lunatics and the faux noise consuming morons who nod pray to their god for a violent attack against Americans on American soil fancy themselves the patriots and I was unpatriotic for opposing an illegal war in Iraq because I knew we were being lied to and I knew it would be a gigantic clusterfuck that would bleed our military and our treasure for years to come - and I was right, by the way. I am apparently unAmerican and don’t have a patriotic bone in my body because I support the stimulus, cap-and-trade and single payer health care.

But it’s perfectly acceptable to wish for the violent, heinous deaths of thousands of Americans on national television because the fringe loonies don’t like the government Americans elected.

Scheuer has been spoken of with admiration by numerous folks on the Left, since he left the abandoned Osama Bin Laden team at the CIA. I think he should be locked up, in solitary, with that odious shitheel Glenn Beck, until one of 'em--doesn't matter which--dies.

META-Note: I considered putting this piece on the Anosognosia blog, but decided not, because Scheuer and Beck are NOT ignorant of their pathologies. they know them and wallow in them.

"Where Were You On Iraqi "Sovereignty Day"?" "Huh? What? Who?"

As USer troops withdrew from Iraqi cities yesterday, to meet the commitment of reducing USer presence in-country, the Iraqi puppet government declared a National Holiday. Jeremy Scahill presents a farily jaundiced view of the proceedings at Information Clearinghouse this morning:

Despite the big show, the U.S. occupation continues. It is very doubtful that—decades from now—Iraqis will tell their grandchildren about where they were on “National Sovereignty Day.”

By Jeremy Scahill

June 30, 2009 "Rebelreports" -- The puppet government in Iraq has named June 30 as “National Sovereignty Day,” and—without mentioning the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis maimed, killed, tortured or made refugees by the U.S. invasion and occupation—thanked the occupiers for placing them in power.

“President” Jalal Talabani termed today “a glorious day,” saying, “While we celebrate this day, we express our thanks and gratitude to our friends in the coalition forces who faced risks and responsibilities and sustained casualties and damage while helping Iraq to get rid from the ugliest dictatorship and during the joint effort to impose security and stability.”

Meanwhile the Iraqi “Prime Minister” Nouri al Maliki—clearly living in his Green Zone bubble—stated: “The national united government succeeded in putting down the sectarian war that was threatening the unity and the sovereignty of Iraq,” adding, “Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake.” Perhaps Maliki has been hanging out too much by the swimming pools and cabanas in the Green Zone and missed these events:

There was a significant spike in violence before the June 30 withdrawal. More than 250 people were killed in a series of bombings, including one on June 20 that left 81 dead outside a mosque in northern Iraq and another in a Baghdad market on June 24 that killed 78.

As we listen to these proclamations from Iraqi “government” officials praising their fake holiday, let’s remember this fact from veteran journalist Patrick Cockburn, who has covered Iraq more than almost any other Western journalist:

Iraq is the world’s premier kleptomaniac state. According to Transparency International the only countries deemed more crooked than Iraq are Somalia and Myanmar, while Haiti and Afghanistan rank just behind. In contrast to Iraq, which enjoys significant oil revenues, none of these countries have much money to steal.

In a grotesquely symbolic move, the Iraqi government marked “National Sovereignty Day” by “open[ing] up some of its massive oil and gas fields to foreign firms,” according to the Wall Street Journal: “In a televised ceremony, international oil companies were invited to submit bids for six oil and two gas fields, a process that marked their return to the country over 30 years after Mr. Hussein nationalized the oil sector and expelled the foreign firms. The fields on offer hold about 43 billion of Iraq’s 115 billion barrels of crude reserves — among the largest in the world.” Among the companies bidding were the Western oil giants ExxonMobil and BP (which reportedly won a contract on Tuesday). As The New York Times reported, “A total of 8 of the world’s 10 top non-state oil companies are competing for licenses to help develop six oil fields and two natural gas fields.”

While the U.S. has hyped up the “handover” to the Iraqis, it is largely a show. Underscoring that point, the top US military commander in the Iraqi capital, Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, handed over the keys to the former Iraqi Defense Ministry to an Iraqi military commander and spoke of how now “Iraqis take the lead in Baghdad.” To keep up appearances, the US military, according to The New York Times, has begun “ordering soldiers to remain in garrison for the next few days to give the Iraqis a chance to demonstrate that they are in control.” Note the phrase “for the next few days.” As for the official ceremonies marking Iraqi “Independence Day,” the Times reports:

The military parade in the Green Zone on Tuesday — at the official monument to the unknown soldier — was attended primarily by Iraqi reporters and dignitaries. The public could not reach it because of extensive security restricting access to the area.
[…]
Many of the celebrations on Tuesday seemed contrived. Police cars were festooned with plastic flowers, and signs celebrating “independence day”were tied to blast walls and fences around the city. On Monday, night a festive evening celebration in Zahra Park with singers and entertainers drew primarily young men, many of them off-duty police officers.

The Washington Post’s Ernesto Londoño, whose report reads like Iraqi “government” propaganda (it begins: “This is no longer America’s war.”), reports:

Anchors on state-run television wore folded Iraqi flags over their shoulders, and the station kept a graphic of a small Iraqi flag waving under the date “6/30” on the top left corner of the screen.

Away from the show, U.S. forces will indeed remain in Iraqi cities to “to train and advise Iraqi forces,” while huge numbers position themselves just outside the cities and could redeploy or strike in moments:

The U.S. hasn’t said how many troops will be in the cities in advisory roles, but the vast majority of the more than 130,000 U.S. forces remaining in the country will be in large bases scattered outside cities.

While a lot of the media hype today focuses on the U.S. “withdrawal,” that is hardly the reality. As previously reported, U.S. military commanders have said they are preparing for an Iraq presence for another 15-20 years, the U.S. embassy is the size of Vatican City, there is no official plan for the withdrawal of contractors and new corporate mercenary contracts are being awarded. The Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) between the U.S. and Iraq gives the U.S. the right to extend the occupation indefinitely and to continue intervening militarily in Iraq ad infinitum. Article 27 of the SoFA allows the U.S. to undertake military action, “or any other measure,” inside Iraq’s borders “In the event of any external or internal threat or aggression against Iraq.”

As the airwaves and internet are flooded with reports of this new Iraqi sovereignty and U.S. withdrawal, it is important to remember a bit of history. Five years ago—almost to the day— President Bush put on an almost identical show. His proconsul L. Paul Bremer “handed over sovereignty” to the Iraqi government just before he skulked out of Baghdad on a secret flight (right after he issued an order banning Iraq from prosecuting contractors). Despite the pronouncements and proclamations and media hype, the occupation continued and real sovereignty was non-existent.

It is very doubtful that—decades from now—Iraqis will tell their grandchildren about where they were on June 30, 2009, “National Sovereignty Day.” At the end of the day, this is U.S.-style Hallmark hype and will remain so until every last occupation soldier leaves Iraqi soil.

Word.

The Ideology of the "Center"

From FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting):

Climate Change Secondary to 'Free' Trade at NYT
06/29/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Tying the urgent present-day topic of economic reporting in with the most pressing global emergency of climate change, Dean Baker has posted at his Beat the Press blog (6/29/09) on "What Does 'Free Trade' Have to Do With Taxing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?":

That is the question that the New York Times should have been asking in an article that reported President Obama's opposition to taxing imported items from countries that have not taken steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The point of his cap-and-trade program is to make items that require large amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more expensive, thereby discouraging their consumption.

If goods can just be imported from countries that have no tax on GHG, then the point of cap-and-trade is undermined, as goods that require large amounts of fossil fuels will just be produced abroad. It is understandable that importers and other special interest would be opposed to measures that prohibit this sort of evasion, but that has absolutely nothing to do with "free trade."

Baker notes that "the NYT completely misrepresents the issue by implying that this is somehow a debate over principles of free trade," when really "it is a debate of whether special interests will be allowed to import goods to undermine the limits set by a cap-and-trade bill for GHG emissions."

For more on press distortions of Obama's cap-and-trade policies, listen to the FAIR radio show CounterSpin: "Mike Lillis on Climate Bill" (5/22/09).

As Paul Krugman averred yesterday, climate change denial and equivocation is tantamount to global treason.

The Triumph of Triviality: Weapons of Mass Distraction

Both A Tiny Revolution and the FAIR blog had found the piece on Robert parry's Consortium News blog by Spanish sociologist Pablo Ouziel who describes

the consequences of how "we wake up in the morning to hear and watch the newest tragedy that has swept the world's media attention"--whether it's "the tragic crash of an airplane" or "the death of a star." Meanwhile:

Serious events and acts are taking place everyday which merit serious social debate, yet because of the fact that our societies are deeply fragmented, broken and clashing between each other, we are unable to grant ourselves the necessary pause, required for conciliation and unity.

Because of this, we are easy to control as a mass of isolated individuals, which is held together by norms and regulations, bureaucracies, military and police, and concepts such as the nation state, the church and the corporation.

If we are to stay in this model of society, I fear we will live in perpetual war until we destroy ourselves by not paying attention to the fact that something is drastically wrong.

Ouziel's digest of exactly what is wrong reads like a list of topics steadfastly avoided by corporate media in the U.S.: "We are living in societies plagued with corruption at all levels, we are constantly expanding our militarized societies surveilled by police forces and colonizing armies, which are rapidly eroding our freedoms." (See the FAIR magazine Extra!: "The Media Ignore Their Core Duty: Arianna Huffington & Glenn Greenwald on Media Accountability" (9–10/08).)

Isolation, ironically, has ALWAYS been part of the telos of "massification," through alienation. The increased development of 'niche markets' exaggerates alienation. Alone in the crowd, we are puppets of the media who pull our strings and push our buttons while driving us, aas individuals, even further apart. This is not surprising fiven that 1) the media are owned by the CorpoRats, and the 'solidarity' of members of related groups is utterly inimical to the CorpoRat interests in authoritarianism, globalism, and increased, oppressive surveillance.

Nobody REALLY Believes The CRA Crashed The Bubble

By "Nobody," I mean self-proclaimed wunderkinder like John Carney, a noisy, reckless sharpie who peddles his nonsense on a blog called "Business Insider." The Business part is probably self-explanatory. The "Insider" part refers to where Carney has to work his facile tongue to provide his 'sources' with lingual prostate massages. He appears to have acquired a taste for their shit. For all his pretentious leering an his incredibly WEAK face, his privileged teen-ager sneer, he's only #3 on the Google list of "top John Carney" hits (the top one being a prestidigitator, the second a pro-football place-kicker for the Giants) and he doesn't even appear on the Wikipedia list of prominent "John Carney's."

Nevertheless this aspiring "Carney" delivered himself recently of a re-iteration of an already-long-debunked Rightard/Flying Monkey history revision blaming the increased access to affordable housing for the Nations brown, black and other "poor" for the collapse of the housing bubble. Dickweeds like Carney who spread such calumnies should have their fingers mangled so that they have to type with tom-tom mallets attached to their foreheads.

Ryan Chittum, former WSJ staffer who has fled the Dark Side for the light of the CJR "Audit" blog, does a masterful job of interpreting both Carney's alarmingly misinformed speculations and Felix Salmon's adept filleting of Carney's excesses.

Because, of course, the contribution of the CRA mortgages to the sum and total of the "bad mortgages that triggered the 'securitized mortgage' crisis was and is minuscule. More than 90--way closer to 95--percent of the bad mortgages causing the problems today were written, not by banks (which were the sole authorized lenders for CRA mortgages) but by the fly-by-night scum and slime at places like "Countrywide" and HFC (now part owner of Citi, nest paw?). Here's the nutz of Salmon's complaint against Carney:

Salmon says at one point:

The fact is that the CRA did not encourage banks to extend the kind of toxic loans which ended up being such an important component of the financial crisis. Indeed, most of those loans weren’t made by banks at all — they were made by unregulated sub-prime lenders who had no CRA responsibilities whatsoever.

But Chittam's not done. He goes on to present any number of other prominent critics of Carney's methodology, style, and parentage. One example:

Here’s Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke talking to the American Bankers Association in February, noting that a tiny minority of loans were under the CRA:

I would like to dispel the notion that these problems were caused in any way by Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lending. The CRA is designed to promote lending in low- to moderate-income areas; it is not designed to encourage high-risk lending or poor underwriting. Our analysis of the data finds no evidence, in fact, that CRA lending is in any way responsible for the current crisis…. In fact, the analysis found that only 6 percent of all higher-priced loans were made by CRA-covered lenders to borrowers and neighborhoods targeted by the CRA. This very small share makes it hard to imagine how CRA could have caused, or even contributed in a meaningful way, to the current crisis. Further support for this conclusion comes from our finding that serious delinquency rates for subprime loans are high in all neighborhood-income categories, not only those in lower-income areas, as might be thought if the CRA were a contributing force to the subprime crisis.

The rest of the piece, which i nice and long and full of nifty quotes, charts the trajectory of the debunking of Carney's (and the Right, in general') misleading claims, and should provide a welcom resource for folks who don't have at hand the data with which to dismiss what are fundamentally racist claims by the right that the poor are to blame for their own and our own 'diminished' conditions.

Why New Mexico Needs Health Reform

From a HHS:

With each passing year, Americans are paying more for health care coverage. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages.(1) In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job.(2) Americans pay more than ever for health insurance, but get less coverage.

THE HEALTH CARE STATUS QUO:

Congress and the President are (supposedly. W) working to enact health care reform legislation that (purportedly. W) protects what (reputedly. W) works about health care and (allegedly. W) fixes what is broken. New Mexicans know that inaction is not an option. Sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets. New Mexicans are paying more for less. Families and businesses in New Mexico deserve better.

(So, then, why is Obama/HSS supporting measures that won't do what they are promising they will do, and opposing and rejecting the only alternative that wou.ld fix the problems??? W.)

NEW MEXICANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

* Roughly 933,000 people in New Mexico get health insurance on the job(1), where family premiums average $13,050, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.(2)
* Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 110 percent in New Mexico.3
* Household budgets are strained by high costs: 21 percent of middle-income New Mexico families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.(4)
* High costs block access to care: 16 percent of people in New Mexico report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.(5)
* New Mexico businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $2,300 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.(6)

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN NEW MEXICO

* 23 percent of people in New Mexico are uninsured, and 70 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.(7)
* The percent of New Mexicans with employer coverage is declining: from 51 to 48 percent between 2000 and 2007.(8)
* Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 73 percent of New Mexico businesses,(9) only 35 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 4 percent since 2000.(10)
* Choice of health insurance is limited in New Mexico. HCSC (Blue Cross Blue Shield) alone constitutes 35 percent of the health insurance market share in New Mexico, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 65 percent. (11)
* Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In New Mexico, premiums can vary, within limits, based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

To reiterate: So, then, why is Obama/HSS supporting measures that won't do what they are promising they will do, and opposing and rejecting the only alternative that would fix the problems??? W.

NEW MEXICANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

* The overall quality of care in New Mexico is rated as “Weak.” (12)
* Preventative measures that could keep New Mexicans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:
o 16 percent of children in New Mexico are obese.(13)
o 26 percent of women over the age of 50 in New Mexico have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
o 44 percent of men over the age of 50 in New Mexico have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
o 70 percent of adults over the age of 65 in New Mexico have received a flu vaccine in the past year. (14)

The need for reform in New Mexico and across the country is clear. New Mexico families simply can’t afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama (says he) is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans.

I repeat: So, then, why is Obama/HSS supporting measures that won't do what they are promising they will do, and opposing and rejecting the only alternative that would fix the problems??? Now, if someone who knows how all this misery and misfeasance can be corrected by the "Obama Plan," or anything like it, send up a fucking flare?

Endnotes:
1 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State--All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.
2 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.
Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Expenditure Data," available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.
3 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2000, Table II.D.1.
Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.
Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Expenditure Data," available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.
4 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2006.
5 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.
6 Furnas, B., Harbage, P. (2009). "The Cost Shift from the Uninsured." Center for American Progress.
7 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic Supplements, March 2007 and 2008.
8 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State--All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.
9 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table II.A.1a.
10 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2001, 2006, Table II.A.2.
11 Health Care for America Now. (2009). "Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market." Health Care for America Now.
12 Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. 2007 State Snapshots. Available http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps07/index.jsp.
13 Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health.
14 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.

"Calling Martin Heinrich!" Martin Heinrich! Martin Heinrich? Please answer The Red courtesy phone? Mr. Heinrich! Please Answer Your Citizen/ (as opposed to your Corporat) Constituents:

Why the fuck haven't you signed on to HR 676?

It's the LEAST They Could Do...

Below, Gary Larson 'bird's-eye' view of the House/Senate
reconciliation process on climate protection and health-care Bills:

The "LEAST" being the (Revo-fucking-LUTIONARY!) "Cap-and-Trade" band-aid on the suppurating bed-sore passed by the House (but still pending in the Senate), and the Obama-care health plan which, whatsoever its weaknesses, holes, absences, and flaws, will assuredly be hailed as the GREATEST THING SINCE EDIBLE UNDIES, and will be touted, by everyone involved in passing it, as the 'answer' to the (apparently abjectly betrayed) "promise" for a new approach to USer health care, but which has n ot even been introduced in EITHER House..

"They," of course, being the corpoRat pig-fuckers in the WhiteHouse and Congress (inclusive).

To the extent that either the energy-plan or the health-plan is in any way 'satisfactory' to the industries which must fall under the regulatory supervision of the legislation, that bill will be a failure to the interests of common folks and the environment, the planet and life in general. These folks always seem willing to prove the null hypothesis in my theory, that humanity is a cosmic experiment testing whether "life" can survive "intelligence."

To the folks who claim that ANY attempt is better than no effort, I offer a hearty "Cods'-wallop!" Both measures, in whatsoever form they eventually comprise, will become excuses to forego FURTHER reforms, to IGNORE the metastacizing crises, and to go before the voters as "reformers," their patent, looming, reeking, odious failures to act in any meaningful way notwithstanding...

Out Here, Where The Water Isn't, BIG Change Is Needed

Way out on the windswept desert,
Where nature favors no man

Chief Buffalo found his brother
At rest on the sunbaked sand.

He says "My brother, what ails you
That illness treat you this way?"

But his brother never said,
Cuz his brother was dead,

Been dead since way last May."
--Jimmy Rodgers "Big Chief Buffalo Nickel"

There's probably better than an even chance that anthropogenic global climate change will render the USer southwest uninhabitable in a not-too-far-distant time: say a century or so, give or take a decade or two. It is already dry here (in Albuquerque, where to my considerable perturbance, the "monsoon" seems to have begun at least a month too soon, by historical standards), the region having experienced localized droughts of durations varying from two, to 10 or even 12 years. In fact, the "droughts" of the past 15-20 years are so pervasive in the region, and of such duration, that many climatologists believe the period against which the "droughts" are measured may itself have been a (wet) anomaly in the historic arc of the region's climate.

Nevertheless, the population of the region is growing radically, with immigrants from the rust/snow belt of the US, as well as those coming north from Latin America for work. So, for the next 100 years anyway, the civil authorities are going to have to try to meet increasing demand with diminishing supply. Luckily, these realities seem to have been grasped by certain officials high in the Governments where many adjustments loom, including some Governors of the region's States.

Peter Gleick, of the renowned and respected Pacific Institute, recently had the chance to discuss the issues of water, conservation, use, and replacement with some of the governors and/or other key State officials, and a precis of his presentation is available now at Alternet.

The number of Governors and Premiers from the western U.S. and Canada that attended the water briefing at the Western Governors Association (WGA) meeting. My own Governor, Governor Schwarzenegger, who has not been nearly as well informed on water as he is on climate, was absent.

Let me summarize what I proposed they consider in the coming years:

• Rethink supply and demand
• Improve institutional management
• Protect water quality
• Integrate climate change into all water planning

(Each point is elaborated at some length in the article. I present only highlights here. Emphases supplied. W)

During the Q&A, we discussed the proper level and role for water management, the idea of innovative groundwater storage as opposed to new dams, the role of international mechanisms for managing water between the U.S. and Canada, and the U.S. and Mexico, and more.

In a small sign of the times, our tables were all served with commercial bottled water despite the fact that Park City has wonderful Utah tap water that originates in the snow of the surrounding mountains. Maybe the Governors should take a lesson from the Mayors (led by, among others, former Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, Utah), who have taken a pretty strong stand against bottled water use. While this meeting showed our leaders are taking many steps in the right direction, we still have a long way to go before we’re properly managing our water.

Personally, I think municipal authorities, especially out here in the desert, should be urged to creat regulation for "bulk" bottle-water sellers (Costco, Wal-Mart/Sams, et al) requiring the retailers to make provision to receive and recycle their empties.

Also, the archetypal "British manor lawn" has gotta go!

We Need To Eliminate "For-Profit" Health Insurance

And if we were to execute a few of the executives, as a 'lesson' to those remaining, that wouldn't be a bad idea either. At least clap 'em the pillories for a couple of days. CJR's Trudy Lieberman had this story earlier in the week. I was gonna post it, but neglected to do so. Now it has appeared on "Raw Story."

A retired health insurance executive — in a shocking but not terribly surprising admission — confessed Wednesday that insurance companies deliberately confuse policyholders and attempt to dump sick patients to plump their profit margins.

“[T]hey confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors,” former Cigna senior executive Wendell Potter told senators at a hearing on health insurance Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“Potter, who has more than 20 years of experience working in public relations for insurance companies Cigna and Humana, said companies routinely drop seriously ill policyholders so they can meet “Wall Street’s relentless profit expectations,’” Potter told the hearing, according to ABC News.

“They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment,” Potter added. “(D)umping a small number of enrollees can have a big effect on the bottom line.”

Lieberman's summary of Potter's story:

Last week, (the LATimes) covered the testimony insurance executives gave before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and offered readers some insight into industry-think. The executives told Congress that they would continue to rescind coverage for people who unintentionally fail to disclose what insurers consider preexisting conditions when applying for health insurance. UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, and Assurant Inc. have cancelled some 20,000 policies, leaving policyholders stuck with medical bills. Sometimes, companies cite even the flimsiest evidence of deceit in order to justify rescinding their coverage. And sometimes they’ve paid bonuses to staffers who help purge their books of policyholders likely to file expensive claims.

A few of Potter's more provocative admissions:

I didn’t want to be part of another health insurance industry effort to shape reform that would benefit the industry at the expense of the public...

A couple of years ago I was in Tennessee and saw an ad for a health expedition in the nearby town of Wise, Virginia. Out of curiosity I went and was overwhelmed by what I saw. Hundreds of people were standing in line to get free medical care in animal stalls. Some had camped out the night before in the rain. It was like being in a different country. It moved me to tears. Shortly afterward I was flying in a corporate jet and realized someone’s insurance premiums were paying for me to fly that way. I knew it wasn’t long before I had to leave the industry. It was like my road to Damascus...

I was in a unique position to know how companies made money—what they had to do to satisfy shareholders—and how the industry has been able to kill reform in the past. I had been part of those efforts and didn’t want to be part of them again...

(T)he media has lost interest in writing stories similar to the managed care horror stories they wrote in the 1990s, when insurers and employers were forcing people into HMOs. There is less coverage of the consequences to people resulting from insurance company practices. A lot of critical reporting is just not being done. Most reporters willingly accept a prepared statement that company executives and lawyers have written, and they feel their obligation is over. The calls we got were few and far between after the media lost interest in managed care.

There's a lot more. I think Obama could have spent all the time he wasted with ABC this week interviewing Potter in prime time, and then going on the offensive, if he really gave a runny shit about the people's health-care...

But he doesn't.