Just Wondrin What Happened

Iraq was only fourth on WMD risk list, inquiry hears | Mail Online

2009-11-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

A war that is gutting our national treasury, bankrupting us, and all based on lies!

Iraq was only fourth on WMD risk list, inquiry hears Mail Online

Blair lied and lied again: Mandarins reveal that 10 days before Iraq invasion PM knew Saddam couldn't use WMDs
By Tim Shipman
Last updated at 10:57 AM on 26th November 2009

No chemical weapons: Tony Blair speaks to British soldiers
The full extent of how Tony Blair misled the public about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction before and after the Iraq War was laid bare yesterday.
The Chilcot Inquiry heard that just ten days before the invasion of Iraq Mr Blair was told Saddam had no way of using weapons of mass destruction.
And weapons experts revealed that the former Prime Minister took Britain to war based on intelligence that his own spies rated just 'four out of ten' for accuracy.
On the eve of the conflict, intelligence chiefs told Mr Blair that the Iraqi dictator had no warheads capable of delivering chemical weapons, dramatically undermining the Prime Minister's case for war.

Yet Mr Blair gave the go-ahead for the invasion despite strong evidence that Iraq was no threat to Britain.
Then, after the war, officials had to tell Mr Blair not to 'declare success too rapidly' in the quest to find WMD in Iraq as he continued to make misleading statements claiming that 'massive evidence' had been found.

The revelations reinforce the case that intelligence evidence that Saddam was no threat was ignored by Mr Blair to take Britain to war on a false prospectus.
Sir William Ehrman, former Director General of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign Office, said that on March 10, 2003 - ten days before the start of the war - British spies reported that Iraq had 'disassembled' what chemical weapons it had.
He said: 'On March 10 we got a report saying that the chemical weapons might have remained disassembled and that Saddam hadn't yet ordered their re-assembly and he might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal of agents.'
The evidence was summarised in a Joint Intelligence Committee report circulated in Whitehall on March 19.
Sir William blamed 'contradictory intelligence' for the failure to put the brakes on.
Blood on your hands: A protester dressed as Tony Blair outside the inquiry into the Iraq war
But Tim Dowse, Foreign Office head of counter-proliferation between 2000 and 2002, also revealed that a month earlier, in February 2003, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix had made clear that he did not believe the mythical weapons existed.

'He raised it at a meeting with ministers,' Mr Dowse said.

More...What an insult to the dead: Brown accused of 'suffocating' Iraq inquiry by blocking incriminating evidence
UK anger as America refuses to share secrets of new radar-evading fighter jet... that Britain helped pay for
British officials ruled against 'illegal' ousting of Saddam, Iraq inquiry told
Defence Secretary blasts Obama for 'dither' over more troops for Afghanistan
9/11 as it happened: Website releases pager messages sent on day of attacks

The most damning testimony concerned Downing Street's decision to write the now infamous dossier in September 2002 to make the case for war.

Both WMD experts made clear that 'huge gaps' in intelligence on Iraq were flagged up to ministers, leaving them with no excuse when the caveats were removed from the final dossier.

Sir William said experts concluded that there never was 'an imminent threat' from Iraq, describing it only as a 'clear and present threat'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230824/Iraq-fourth-WMD-risk-list-inquiry-hears.html#ixzz0Y4sOqeN3

Gun Lobbyists Misleading Again

2009-11-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

The gun lobbyists are at it again! They try to tie everything into their right to own a gun, whether it has the faintest inkling of sanity or truth in it. As the victim of gun violence at an early age, I think these "arguments" are really disingenuous. The gun lobby obviously thinks it's OK for you to be injured with somebody's gun, but they don't want you to be able to go to the doctor. Read on.... Thanks to Hillbilly Report for this info.

November 19, 2009 Larry Pratt "GOA" letter:
Vote “NO” on Anti-gun ObamaCare!
November 19, 2009
Dear Senator:
On behalf of over 300,000 law-abiding American gun owners, I am writing to ask you to vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to health care.
As a result of the mandates in the legislation, this bill will most likely dump Americans’ gun-related health data into a government database that was created in section 13001 of the stimulus bill. This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned . . . or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms.
Moreover, the special “wellness and prevention” programs (inserted by Section 1001 of the bill as part of a new Section 2717 in the Public Health Services Act) would allow the government to offer lower premiums to employers who bribe their employees to live healthier lifestyles -- and nothing within the bill would prohibit rabidly anti-gun HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from decreeing that “no guns” is somehow healthier.
Again, I urge you to vote NO on the anti-gun ObamaCare. GOA will score a vote for cloture and for final passage as anti-gun actions.
Sincerely,
Larry Pratt
Executive Director

The White House has taken notice of this and posted a response here, see below.

The White House Blog
Reality Check: Health Insurance Reform and Guns
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on November 24, 2009 at 11:31 AM EST

It’s amazing that after so many months debating health insurance reform, sometimes a myth we see being spread about it can still surprise us. In October, for example, we saw a rather shocking claim that one bill being debated in the Senate "could be used to ban guns in home self-defense." Politifact appropriately dismissed that claim as false, and we thought we could all move on from bizarre claims that reform was related to the 2nd Amendment in any way whatsoever.
But apparently the Gun Owners of America, the same group that propagated that ridiculous claim, had simply gone back to the drawing board. Today they sent out an alert misleading their members again, raising the specter of some massive government database of "gun-related health data" despite the fact that there is no mention "gun-related health data" or anything like it anywhere in either the Senate or the House bills.

RHETORIC: GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA CLAIMS THAT HEALTH REFORM LEGISLATION WILL "DUMP YOUR GUN-RELATED HEALTH DATA” INTO A GOVERNMENT DATABASE WHICH CAN BE USED TO "PRECLUDE YOU FROM OWNING FIREARMS." The Gun Owners of America (GOA) claim that "the mandates in [the Senate's health reform] legislation will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database that was created in section 13001 of the stimulus bill. This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned... or any determination of PTSD, or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms." [Gun Owners of America Alert, 11/20/09]
REALITY: NOTHING IN THE SENATE BILL WOULD RESULT IN "GUN-RELATED HEALTH DATA" BEING SUBMITTED TO THE GOVERNMENT. There is no mention of "gun-related health data" anywhere in the Senate’s health reform bill and there is nothing in the bill that would result in any such data being reported to the government. The bill does provide guidelines for reporting of anonymous statistical information to help with research, but none of this would lead to gun ownership or “gun related health data” being included in reporting to the government. [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]

RHETORIC: GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA CLAIMS THAT SECTION 2717 OF THE SENATE HEALTH REFORM BILL WOULD ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO OFFER LOWER PREMIUMS TO EMPLOYERS IF THEIR EMPLOYEES DO NOT OWN GUNS. Gun Owners of America (GOA) claims that "Special ‘wellness and prevention’ programs (inserted by Section 1001 of the bill as part of a new Section 2717 in the Public Health Services Act) would allow the government to offer lower premiums to employers who bribe their employees to live healthier lifestyles -- and nothing within the bill would prohibit rabidly anti-gun HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from decreeing that 'no guns' is somehow healthier." [Gun Owners of America Alert, 11/20/09]
REALITY: NOTHING IN THE SENATE HEALTH REFORM BILL WOULD LEAD TO HIGHER PREMIUMS FOR GUN OWNERS OR A "DECREE" THAT GUN OWNERS ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN OTHERS. Section 2717 section creates guidelines for insurers to report on initiatives that improve quality of care and health outcomes, and it specifically lists what types of programs would be involved – such as smoking cessation, physical fitness, nutrition, heart disease prevention. There is no mention of guns, and there is no language that could result in higher premiums for gun owners or lower premiums for people who do not own guns. Section 2705 of the bill does permit employers to provide premium discounts for employee participation in health promotion and disease prevention programs, and it prohibits insurers from discriminating against individuals for specific reasons such as health status, medical history, and genetic information. It allows the Secretary to add other “health status-related” factors to the list. But again, there is no mention of guns, or any possibility that owning or not owning guns would ever be considered a "health status-related" issue. [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]

NSA helped with Windows 7 development

2009-11-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

NSA helped with Windows 7 development

"The National Security Agency worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged during testimony with Congress."
According to Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronics Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the NSA had previously helped with other incarnations of the Windows operating system, but "When NSA offers to help the private sector on computer security, the obvious concern is that it will also build in backdoors that will enable tracking users and intercepting user communications, and private firms are reluctant to oppose these 'suggestions' since the US government is their biggest customer and opposition to the NSA could mean loss of sales."

Happy Computing!!

Quick Fact: Fearmongering about rationing, Baier falsely claimed a "federal panel" promulgated cervical cancer guidelines | Media Matters for America

2009-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

Quick Fact: Fearmongering about rationing, Baier falsely claimed a "federal panel" promulgated cervical cancer guidelines Media Matters for America

FACT: ACOG is a private, non-profit, voluntary membership organization that issued non-binding guidelines issued to health reform.
The American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, which announced new guidelines for federal cancer screenings, is not a "federal panel". It is a private membership organization.

So before you get your panties all in a wad about the federal government and health care reform rationing care and forming death panels, get your facts and resources straight. Really good article at Media Matters. Just follow the link.

Reagan Didn't End the Cold War -- Leftist Intellectuals Did | | AlterNet

2009-11-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Reagan Didn't End the Cold War -- Leftist Intellectuals Did AlterNet

GOP Blocks Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rate Hikes

2009-11-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

GOP Blocks Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rate Hikes

Corporatist Dems: Let Us Gut Medicare and Social Security, or We'll Sabotage Health-Care Bill | Crooks and Liars

2009-11-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

Corporatist Dems: Let Us Gut Medicare and Social Security, or We'll Sabotage Health-Care Bill Crooks and Liars

RNC Mailer Appears Designed To Look Like Census Survey | TPMMuckraker

2009-10-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

RNC Mailer Appears Designed To Look Like Census Survey TPMMuckraker
RNC Mailer Appears Designed To Look Like Census Survey
Zachary Roth October 26, 2009, 11:39AM

Michele Bachmann may be raising outlandish fears about the Census -- but Michael Steele's operation seems to be more than happy to associate its political efforts with the national survey.
The Republican National Committee is sending a mailer to GOP voters that aims to gather information and raise money. Nothing wrong with that. But the mailer appears clearly designed to mislead recipients into thinking that it's an official Census Bureau survey, which people are required by law to fill out.
You can see the mailer here. It's entitled, in bold, "2009 Congressional District Census." (The words "commissioned by the Republican Party" appear just below that, in much smaller and lighter type.) Above the recipient's address, it says: "Census Document Registered To." And it even includes a "Census Tracking Code."
The survey section includes questions about recipients' political leanings ("Conservative Republican," "Moderate Republican," etc.) and where they get their news. It also asks: "How much does it concern you that the Democrats have total control of the federal government."
One recipient told a Georgia news station that many of her neighbors might be duped into thinking the mailer was from the Census Bureau.
I could see a lot of my neighbors that are older who would get something like this in the mail and fill it out ... all the information, every little section, and send in money.
The mailer tells recipients:
Strengthening our Party for the 2009-2010 elections will take a massive grassroots effort. As a key facet of our overall campaign strategy, the Republican Party is Conducting a Census of Congressional Districts all across America.
It's unclear how widely the mailer has been sent -- the RNC didn't immediately respond to our request for comment.
A spokesman for the Census Bureau told the Georgia TV station that the mailer is not technically illegal.
But if nothing else, the GOP may want to re-check its lists. It sent the mailer to a local Democratic Party chair in Georgia -- whose wife posted it on her blog.

Public Option Annie - with lyrics (guerrilla musical at AHIP conference)

2009-10-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

Awesome!

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies

2009-10-26T14:23:00.001-07:00

How can we allow people to lose everything they have just because they got sick?

Grayson v. Broun on the Constitution

2009-10-23T08:12:00.001-07:00

"Will you yield?" NO!!!

Weekly Address: Taking the Insurance Companies on Down the Stretch

2009-10-18T10:05:00.001-07:00

Piano stairs - TheFunTheory.com - Rolighetsteorin.se

2009-10-18T09:53:00.001-07:00

Wouldn't this be fun?

Flu vaccines revealed as the greatest quackery ever pushed in the history of medicine

2009-10-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

I never, ever take a flu shot. When I used to, I was always very sick with the flu much worse than normal, the whole season. Here's a small portion of an article from the Atlantic that tells the truth about the flu shot scam.

Flu vaccines revealed as the greatest quackery ever pushed in the history of medicine

If the whole world knew what you're about to read here, the vaccine industry would collapse overnight.
Prepare to have your world rocked. What you're about to read here will leave you astonished, inspired and outraged all at the same time. You're about to be treated to some little-known information demonstrating why seasonal flu vaccines are utterly worthless and why their continued promotion is based entirely on fabricated studies and medical mythology.
This information comes to you courtesy of a brilliant article published in The Atlantic (November 2009). The article, written by Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer, isn't just brilliant; in my opinion it stands as the best article on flu vaccines that has ever been published in the popular press. Entitled Does the vaccine matter?, it presents some of the most eye-opening information you've probably ever read about the failure of flu vaccines. You can read the full article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/2009...

And here's the real kicker that demonstrates why flu vaccines are useless...Flu vaccines only "work" on people who don't need them
Vaccines supposedly "work" by introducing a weakened viral strain that causes the immune system to respond by building influenza antibodies. However, as Jefferson points out, only healthy people produce a good antibody response to the vaccine. And yet it is precisely the unhealthy people -- the ones who have a poor immune response to the vaccine -- who are most at risk of being harmed or killed by influenza. But the vaccines don't work in them!
In other words -- get this -- flu vaccines only "work" in people who don't need them!
At the same time, it's also accurate to say that vaccines don't work at all in the very people who theoretically could benefit from them. They only produce antibodies in people who already have such a strong immune response that they don't need the vaccine in the first place.
Jefferson has called for randomized, placebo-controlled studies of the vaccines. But vaccine pushers are resisting these clinical trials! They call the trials "unethical" (but, in reality, they know that a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study would reveal the complete failure of flu vaccines, and they will do anything to prevent such a trial from happening. Don't you find it amazing that drug pushers and vaccine advocates claim they have "science" on their side, but they won't submit their vaccines to any real science at all?)
No placebo-controlled studies have ever been conducted on flu vaccines because the industry says they would be "unethical." So where do these people get off claiming their vaccines work at all? The whole industry is based on fabricated statistics that are provably false... and the injections continue, year after year, with absolutely no benefit to public health whatsoever...

Let's recap what we just learned here (because it's just mind-boggling):
There have been no placebo-controlled studies on flu vaccines because the vaccine pushers say such clinical trials would be "unethical." Thus, there is actually no hard scientific evidence that they work at all.
The "50 percent reduction in mortality" statistic that's tossed around by vaccine pushers is a total fabrication based on "rubbish" studies ("cohort" studies).
Scrutinizing the existing studies that claim to support vaccines reveals that flu vaccines simply don't work. And when vaccines aren't available or the formulation is wrong, there's no spike in death rates, indicating quite conclusively that these vaccines offer no reduction in mortality.
Flu vaccines only produce antibodies in people who don't need vaccines. At the same time, they fail to produce antibodies in people who are most vulnerable to flu. Thus, vaccines only work in people who don't need them.
The entire flu vaccine industry is run like a cult, with dogma ruling over science. Anyone who asks tough, scientific questions is immediately branded a heretic. No one is allowed to question the status quo. (So much for "evidence-based medicine," huh?)

Woman Who Carried Open Gun To Kid's Soccer Game Shot And Killed | Crooks and Liars

2009-10-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have my own tale of misery concerning guns. When I was less than a year old, my mother and father got into an argument during a separation. He was a Marine that had served in Korea, and well able to handle a gun and had his with him that day. To make the long story short, he ended up being shot with his own gun, and I lost both my parents that day.

Woman Who Carried Open Gun To Kid's Soccer Game Shot And Killed Crooks and Liars

There are varying views on gun rights and gun control in America, and since Barack Obama was elected president, the right has been whipping up their fringe base, warning that the Democrats are coming for their guns. We've seen unprecedented displays of weapons outside Obama events in recent months and right wing violence is on the rise.
In this very ironic and tragic story, a woman from Pennsylvania who carried an open, loaded pistol to her child's soccer game was shot and killed in an apparent murder-suicide:
Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
In a case that was sure to get a lot of traction from the right, Hain was in the process of suing the sheriff who revoked her gun permit after the incident -- even though her license was reinstated shortly after.
Hain then filed a lawsuit against DeLeo for $1 million in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, emotional distress and lost wages.
"Just the fact that he was wrong is evidenced by the fact that my license was restored to me. ... I am a victim of Sheriff Michael DeLeo’s. I am a victim of those in society as a direct result of his actions as well. The way people look at me sometimes when I am out running errands, I feel as if I am wearing a scarlet letter, and really it’s a Glock 26." Read on...
I'm not trying to put Hain on trial here, but I disagree with her irresponsible actions in taking a loaded weapon and openly displaying it at a children's sporting event. I feel for their three children who were at home at the time of the shootings and are now faced with growing up without their parents.

Obama's Approval Rating Jumps; But That's Not the Story the Beltway Press Wants to Tell | PEEK | AlterNet

2009-10-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Obama's Approval Rating Jumps; But That's Not the Story the Beltway Press Wants to Tell PEEK AlterNet
And it's a big jump, too, according to the AP:
An Associated Press-GfK poll says 56 percent of those surveyed in the past week approve of Obama's job performance, up from 50 percent in September. It's the first time since he took office in January that his rating has gone up.
We'll see how much media play this poll gets, and then try to compare that coverage to how we think an AP poll reporting a sharp drop for Obama would play inside the Beltway right now. (Hint: that coverage would be significant.)

The Mountain - Johnny Possum

2009-10-07T16:22:00.001-07:00

Dylan Ratigan - The Cost of Corporate Communism

2009-10-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

The Cost of Corporate Communism

Lately I have been using the phrase "Corporate Communism" on my television show. I think it is an especially fitting term when discussing the current landscape in both our banking and health care systems.
As Americans, I believe we reject communism because it historically has allowed a tiny group of people to consolidate complete control over national resources (including people), in the process stifling competition, freedom and choice. It leaves its citizens stagnating under the perpetual broken systems with no natural motivation to innovate, improve services or reduce costs. Lack of choice, lazy, unresponsive customer service, a culture of exploitation and a small powerbase formed by cronyism and nepotism are the hallmarks of a communist system that steals from its citizenry and a major reason why America spent half a century fighting a Cold War with the U.S.S.R. And yet today we find ourselves as a country in two distinctly different categories: those who are forced to compete tooth and nail each day to provide value to society in return for income for ourselves and our families and those who would instead use our lawmaking apparatus to help themselves to our tax money and/or to protect themselves from true competition.If you allow weak, outdated players to take control of the government and change the rules so they are protected from the natural competition and reward systems that have created so many innovations in our country, you not only steal from the citizens on behalf of the least worthy but you also doom them by trapping the capital that would be used to generate new innovation and, most tangibly in our current situation, jobs.We are losing the opportunity cost of all the great ideas that should be coming from the proper deployment of that 23.7 trillion in capital. Everything from innovation in medical delivery systems to accessible space travel, free energy to the driverless car; all of these things may never come to bear because those powerful individuals who have failed, been passed over by technological advancements, innovation and flat-out smarts, have commandeered our government to unfairly sustain their wealth and power. Unfortunately, they use our wealth and laws not only to benefit their outdated, failed companies, but also spend a small pittance of their ill-gotten gains lobbying and favor-trading with politicians so the government will continue to protect them from competition and their well-deserved failure.
The massive spike in unemployment, the utter destruction of retirement wealth, the collapse in the value of our homes, the worst recession since the Great Depression have all resulted directly from the abdication of proper government. Even with all that -- the only changes that have been made, have been made to prop up and hide the massive flaws on behalf of those who perpetuated them. Still utterly nothing has been done to disclose the flaws in this system, improve it or rebuild it. Only true rules-based capitalism ensures constant adaptation and implementation of the latest and best practices for a given business, as those businesses that don't adapt fail, and those who deploy the latest innovations to their customers benefit, prosper.
The concept of communism is rightly reviled in this country for the simple reason that it is blind to human nature, allowing a small group of individuals near-total control, while sticking everyone else with the same crappy systems -- and the bill. America spent countless lives and half a century fighting against this system of government. So why are we standing for it now? Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/the-cost-of-corporate-com_b_312516.html

Alan Grayson goes on the set of The Situation Room and fires back on the Republicans! | Crooks and Liars

2009-10-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Alan Grayson goes on the set of The Situation Room and fires back on the Republicans! Crooks and Liars

How many politicians would walk onto a set of a TV show out of the blue and eviscerate the entire pundit panel? Alan Grayson strolled out onto the stage of CNN's The Situation Room and took on their crew including Blitzer, Carville, Johns and that whack job Alex Castellanos over his remarks about the non-existent GOP health care. He started by saying "they have no plan!" and by not having a plan, they are hurting Americans. Blitzer was so shocked that Grayson actually said something nobody in the media wants to talk about.
Grayson: They just want to stop everything.
Blitzer: Has any Democratic leader asked you to apologize to the republicans.
Grayson: No and you know why? Because I'm saying what everyone else has been thinking, but no one else has been saying.
Blitzer: And so you have no intention of apologizing?
Grayson: Of course not. Apologize? I'm not the one who should be apologizing, they should be apologize to America.

Grayson: You know, that's just helping the people who give republicans money...Let's concentrate on helping this country, saving lives and saving money and not the usual cliches.--Grayson: These are foot dragging, knuckle dragging neanderthals who think they can dictate policy to America by being stubborn and I think the time is over. We had an election, that's it. Now we have to move ahead in just the way the president wants us to.

Cantor To Uninsured Woman: Get An "Option" Like Charity Or Govt Program

2009-09-25T07:40:00.001-07:00

Message from Republicans - Spend all your money on health care bills, then sell everything you have to keep paying the bills, then find a GOVERNMENT agency to cover your health care.

They like the government option when you've lost everything and go broke.

A Scathingly Brilliant Idea on How To Get Real Healthcare Reform | Crooks and Liars

2009-09-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

A Scathingly Brilliant Idea on How To Get Real Healthcare Reform Crooks and Liars
Why wait for swine flu? Go to your Representatives' office if you get sick or hurt in any way! Especially if it's contagious!!

I have this idea. It's pretty simple and I think it will appeal to a lot of people.
Here it is.
I want every uninsured man and woman who comes down with swine flu to go sit in the waiting rooms of their elected representatives.
That's it. Just sit there - coughing. Throwing your used Kleenex in their trash receptacles. If they want us to suffer, they should have to look at at the logical consequences of their inaction. Tell them you're going to keep coming back until they manage to pass something that's actually going to help people instead of lining the pockets of the insurance companies.
If the weather gets cold, set up a tent in the parking lot, put a sign on it that says "Waiting Room: Waiting for Affordable Health Care." Set up your lawn chairs and invite everyone who passes to sit there with you. Be sure to call your local media.
With apologies to Arlo Guthrie:
if you're in a situation like that, there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the congressman's office wherever you are ,just walk in say "Congressman, we just want affordable health care". And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's nuts and they won't pay attention. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're just odd and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in saying "We just want affordable health care" and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in, coughing their heads off and saying, "We just want affordable health care" and then walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement.

Tort Reform - Are Insurance Companies The Real Elephant In The Room?

2009-09-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

Tort reform, tort reform! That and tax credits and tax reduction seems to be the only song of the one-note wonders usually known as the Republican party. They claim there can be no real health reform without tort reform, because to them, that is what is the major driving factor of rising prices. These crows constantly caw that the reason insurance premiums and health costs are so high are those dastardly trial lawyers who file frovolous lawsuits for criminals claiming to have been hurt or made ill by doctors or drug manufacturers.

Here in Tennessee, we already have Tort Reform! Bet you didn't know that. I wouldn't have if I hadn't attended a meeting of the Sullivan County Women's Democratic Party recently where attorney Parke Morris gave an excellent presentation about who benefits and who is hurt by liability reform. In Tennessee, it's known as "Medical Liability Reform" (but a better name would be Gatekeeper Bill) and was enacted in 2008. (I'm still searching for the actual bill numbers, but I'll find them!) The legislation calls for

limiting non-economic damages to $250,000

Limit contingency fees for attorneys

Restrict expert testimony to active practitioners in a specialty relevant to the lawsuit

Require the plaintiff to declare the amount of damages they are seeking

Require submission of an affidavit by two experts in the field specifying the negligence that occurred and provides damages to the defendant including legal fees if the affidavit is rejected by the court before the case gets to trial

Notably, Tort Reform has not stopped insurance premiums from rising!

I found more information at Nashville Medical News

The law contains several provisions that are victories for the Tennessee medical community. First among them is a requirement that providers be given a 60-day written notice that they may potentially have a complaint filed against them. “It’s a pre-notice, so to speak,” Zelizer said, and its purpose is to preclude plaintiff attorneys from casting a broad net and including providers who shouldn’t be parties to the claim. Tied to this provision is another – that all parties in an action are entitled to obtain complete copies of the patient’s medical records within 30 days of a written request. Providers who shouldn’t be plaintiffs could obviously be identified at this point in the process.

The linchpin of the legislation is its Certificate of Good Faith requirement. Within 90 days after the complaint, plaintiffs must consult with one or more expert witnesses and receive a written statement saying that the expert witness believes in good faith that the action has merit. The legislation doesn’t require that the certificate be turned in to the court, at least not at this point.

“Obviously, if the plaintiff’s attorney is unable to get that Certificate of Good Faith, the thought is that the action will dissolve, that it will go nowhere. … If the plaintiffs choose to proceed and ultimately the case is dismissed, and if the defense believes for some reason that the case was brought without merit, that it was frivolous, the defense does have the ability to ask the court in certain circumstances to see the Certificate of Good Faith,” Zelizer explained.

Without a certificate and with a failed case, plaintiffs may be required to assume part or all of the costs of the defense. Professional and financial sanctions against the attorney are also a possibility.

There’s also a Certificate of Good Faith requirement on the defense side, in the event that the defendant believes one or more providers aren’t named as defendants and should be. That certificate would require the opinion of an expert witness that another provider was responsible or was involved in the case.

“So there’s balance to this thing. It applies not just to the plaintiff’s attorney, but also in some scenarios, to the defense attorney,” Zelizer said.

The new law doesn’t change the definition of an expert witness — a person with a license to practice in Tennessee or in a contiguous bordering state, who practices in a profession or specialty that would make him or her expert in issues relevant in the case and who practiced during the year before the injury occurred. "

OOH, THAT ALL SOUNDS REALLY EXPENSIVE AND PROHIBITIVE, DOESN'T IT!

I also found lots of information on how it affects the injured at ePluribusMedia Comunity and at Public Citizen, using the data collected by the National Practitioner's Data Bank (where information about all medical malpractice settlements is reported by law), concluded that the "medical malpractice crisis" is, and always has been a "HOAX." http://www.citizen.org/documents/NPDB%20Report_Final.pdf. They say the true figures show, among other things, that:
a. the Annual Number of Malpractice Payments Is Down

b. Medical Malpractice Payments per Population Continue to Decline

c. Total Value of Malpractice Payments is Flat Since 1991

d. Judgments Are Not Irrational

e. Million-Dollar Judgments Are Less Than 1 Percent of the Total Number of Payments

f. Million-Dollar Judgments Were Less Than 3 Percent of Total Value of Payments in 2005

Let's look at Texas, which has the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation, 24% in 2007, according to Dallasnews.com . In 2003, tort reform was passed which capped non-economic damages to $250,000.00. In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that Texas health insurance premiums increased by 40 percent from 2001 to 2005, which was the third fastest increase in the nation. So how's that tort reform working out for the patients? Not very well! I guess if you can't go to the doctor, you can't file suit if they cut off your leg when you have a sore throat! Tort reform might have lowered doctors' liability and insurance premiums, but IT DID NOT lower the premiums for the patients.

According to The San Antonio Biz Journal , "Austin-based consumer group Texas Watch believes its new "Patient Justice" report debunks the theory that tort reform has helped improve health care. Last June, the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private foundation, produced a state-by-state evaluation of health care in the United States. For its "Patient Justice" report, Texas Watch reviewed data from the Commonwealth Fund study and matched some of that analysis against a list of states that have enacted tort-reform legislation.
Among the findings, according to Texas Watch Executive Director Alex Winslow: Nearly 70 percent of the states with the poorest overall health system performance in the Commonwealth study limit patient access to the courts, as do 79 percent of the states ranked with the worst access to health care.
Texas Watch says 84 percent of the states ranking poorest in quality of care, according to the Commonwealth study, also limit patient access to the courts.
"Our report demonstrates the fallacy of the contention that limiting patient access to the legal system will lead to better health care," Winslow says.
Texas Watch contends that Americans are better off in states that do not restrict the ability of injured patients to hold negligent doctors and hospitals accountable for their actions.
Says Winslow -- who notes that Texas was ranked at or near the bottom in the Commonwealth Fund study in overall health system performance and access: "It is clear that taking away the legal rights of patients does not improve health care."

I checked over at the Congressional Budget Office and found this;

"Evidence from the states indicates that premiums for malpractice insurance are lower when tort liability is restricted than they would be otherwise. But even large savings in premiums can have only a small direct impact on health care spending--private or governmental--because malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of that spending. Advocates or opponents cite other possible effects of limiting tort liability, such as reducing the extent to which physicians practice "defensive medicine" by conducting excessive procedures; preventing widespread problems of access to health care; or conversely, increasing medical injuries. However, evidence for those other effects is weak or inconclusive. "

So, if malpractice accounts for less than 2 percent of health care spending, what is the real driver behind the call for tort reform. Well, if you really listen to Republicans like Charles Krauthammer of Faux Noise, they let their guard down every now and then and tell you the real truth about it all. It's those lawyers, who contribute heavily to the Democratic Party. They figure if they take out a large portion of donations to Dems, they can beat candidates because of lack of advertising and outreach.

Of course, insurance and drug companies, and their ilk don't have a problem with THEIR lawyers, and will most certainly hire a team of the most expensive lawyers they can find to keep from accepting liability for the pain and suffering they cause little ole nobody you. They just have a problem with the injured having any recourse and want it to be VERY expensive and difficult for you to file a claim against them.

Mary Mancini To Speak At Democratic Resource Center Fundraiser In Johnson City

2009-09-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sullivan County Democratic Women Events

I attended an excellent meeting of the Sullivan County Democratic Women at Fish Tales in Bristol Saturday the 19th. I really wish I'd taken my camera because the speaker, attorney Parke Morris did an excellent presentation on Tort Reform, which I'll be blogging about later.

There are several upcoming events that many of you might be interested in, so come out and join us!

On October 3rd, there will be a Yard Sale & Baked Goods Fundraiser in Blountville.

On November 14, the Sullivan County Democratic Party will hold an "Ole Time Political Rally" with a hot dog/hamburger dinner. There will be a straw poll and gubernatorial and other candidates will be speaking. Location and price will be announced later.

The Sullivan County Democratic Party Executive Committee meets the third Thursday of each month in the library of Blountville Middle School. All Democrats are welcome and urged to attend.

For information on the Sullivan County Democratic Women's events, call Sue O'Dell at 423-323-7043

There will also be events for the DEMOCRATIC RESOURCE CENTER in the next few weeks, as noted below;

On October 10, there will be a fundraiser for the Democratic Resource Center at the Sahib Restaurant in Johnson City, located at
Address: 2312 1/2 Browns Mill Rd, Johnson City, TN 37604
Phone: (423) 283-7100
Website: http://www.sahibrestaurant.com/
The theme of the event is "WELCOME TO BALIWOOD" and will begin at 7:00 in the party room adjacent to the restaurant. The evening will begin with Mary Mancini, who is fondly referred to as the "Rachel Maddow of Tennessee." Mary is the cohost of Liberadio(!) on Vanderbilt University's WRUV-FM.
After Mary, entertainment will be stand-up comedian Marvin Lee. With over 16 years as a professional comedian, Marvin has performed in over 6 countries and in over 50 comedy clubs and casinos in the US.

After the entertainment, a live auction will be conducted by Rep. Eddie Yokley, but this will be unlike any auction you have seen.....just wait!
Tickets are $20.00 each or 2 for $35.00. Tickets at the door will be $25.00. Dinner is not included with the tickets, but come early and eat Sahib's Indian cuisine!
For information, contact the DRC at 423-282-2081

Dancing With The Czars

2009-09-18T17:46:00.001-07:00

First, there are no "Czars"! That's a media shortcut, and most of what they're calling czars are positions that were confirmed by the Senate. It's just that Czar sounds so cold warrish, and negative! The Environmental Czar is really chief of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, not a Czar!

But....Bush had 47 czars! Why the outcry now? Oh, yeah - HYPOCRITES!!!

Phil Roe Conducting Online Survey On Public Option Support

2009-09-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter where you live, click on the link and weigh in on your support for a public option. Phil Roe (R) 1st District, is only sending the surveys to those on his e-mail list, so it will be tilted "no support" due to the fact most of the people on his list are Republicans. The survey only asks for an e-mail address, not a physical address, so let him know how you feel!