Corrente

Would someone more expert than I about Social Security and Medicare please take a crack at Newsweek's Robert J. Samuelson's "Young Voters, Get Mad — You need to appeal to the shame and guilt of older Americans"? Read below the fold...

Yes, of course.

What possible reason than racism could there be for not voting for Obama?

NOTE This has also been another edition of The Press Has Already Called It. Read below the fold...

Losers, under the bus, in Olathe, KS. Can you say "under-class"?

Carol Hammer, 65, is unable to work and lives on a fixed income. She has no car. She has limited minutes on her phone. She relies on donated canned good for meals and neighbors for interaction. By the time the final week of the month comes around, Hammer eats popcorn for meals, she said.

"It used to be that if I wanted something I'd go out and buy it– now I sit and dream about it," Hammer said.

Read below the fold...

Great quote from Mr. Andrea Mitchell: Read below the fold...

The latest MoveOn mailing:

Dear MoveOn member,

America needs Barack Obama. But a new president alone cannot fix what ails America.

Especially if he continues to praise and facilitate the policies — and use the rhetorical frames — that have harmed us.
Read below the fold...

This was a new one on me, from 007 actor Daniel Craig:

“Obama would be the better Bond [than McCain] because — if he’s true to his word — he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them.”

Can't you see it now?

Faced with destroyers of the Constitution and thieves who covet our Treasury, he seduces us with honeyed words (a good name for a "Bond Girl," BTW) into ending our partisan bickering with creepy crypto-overlords who maintain private armies on volcanic islands. (His Hawaiian background and experience with Axelrod might provide him with special training in these matters. Give him a license to equivocate, and watch out!) Read below the fold...

Northup and Yarmuth square off on healthcare and economy in third debate

"Right now, 70 percent of Humana's business is administering programs from the government," retorted Yarmuth. "The idea that a single-payer program basically preempts the private sector is not true."

Yarmuth also defended universal and single-payer systems.

Read below the fold...

Pew Research: McCain Collapses in Latest National Poll.

So, can we get single payer next session? Since we can't afford not to do it?

Instead of some half-assed compromise with the insurance companies, as with Axelrod's beta version in Massachusetts? Read below the fold...

Private health insurance in Mass. not living up to hype

The critics point out a number of worrisome signs. First, the part of the plan that is supposed to get those who supposedly can afford insurance to pony up, is failing -- mainly because the cost of the private coverage is so high. The doctors note the lowest-cost plan for a couple in their 50s costs $8,200 annually and includes a $2,000 per person deductible.

Big money to insurers

Meanwhile, the private insurers are making out like bandits. Blue Cross, as the state's largest insurer, supposedly is acquiring a surplus of more than $1 million each day. It was able to pay its outgoing CEO a $16.4 million retirement bonus.

Read below the fold...

GO VOTE ALREADY!!!

Vote for Noriega and Fullingim, at least! Read below the fold...

In his recent NPR interview. He's "fairly terrified."

And that's why I'm so happy that Obama was in there fighting, working the phones to get the big banks the trillion they needed with the Bush + Reid + Pelosi + Obama + Paulson bill.

Because it shows he's willing to help. Read below the fold...

Apparently, irony isn't dead after all.
It's just gone stealth. Read below the fold...

Huffing is bad for your mental health:
Read below the fold...

Results of a new study:

"Now we know that, at least in one species, sexual cannibalism benefiting females occurs in nature." Read below the fold...

Via email, from HCAN's latest mailer:

We are not going to allow our health care system get deregulated to the point that our banking system did.

Forget the illiteracy, what on earth does "to the point that our banking system did" mean? I don't want to tinker round the edges of a system that's killing people with better regulations; I want do what every other civilized country does, and make health care a universal, human right. Read below the fold...