How will the White House make amends for censoring single payer in its Iowa health care forum "live blog" transcript?
Executive summary: Reuters coverage and a YouTube of the event show that the White House live blogger suppressed a single payer question asked by Dr. Jess Federowicz of PNHP.
[Welcome, Kos readers. Dr. Federowicz is live blogging with us this morning!]
Dr. Jess Federowicz, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist and clinician investigator in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa. Dr. Fiedorowicz also won the lottery for a ticket to the White House's Iowa Health Care forum -- after Iowa's (Democratic!) Governor Chet Culver, most shamefully, had tried to sell the tickets to corporate sponsors! Dr. Federowicz participated in the protests outside the hall, and also spoke inside the hall at the forum. As reported by Reuters India*:
Dr. Jess Fiedorowicz, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa Hospitals who was with the protest group, told the meeting a majority of Americans support a "single payer" or government-run national health insurance program.
"Can we put it on the table for discussion?" Fiedorowicz asked Nancy-Ann De Parle, director of the White House Office on Health Reform.
"Can we study costing? Can we study feasibility of this truly universal, socially just and fiscally responsible alternate to our currently unjust and woefully inefficient system?" Fiedorowicz asked. Many in the crowd applauded.
And yet -- and I know this wil surprise you -- Dr. Fiedorowicz appears nowhere in the White House "live blog" of the event! Is Reuters wrong? Let's go to the tape (or in this case, the YouTube): Read more…
DCBlogger could use some help
All that phonework on behalf of single payer doesn't come for free -- at least if you want the line clear and the connections never dropped! Corrente is the goto political blog on single payer because of dcblogger's work, so if you can help out, that would be great. Ther'es a "Single Payer Advocate" PayPal button to the right. Thanks!
No money for Blue Dogs!
As Chris Bowers says, let 'em pay their own freight. Blue Dogs work against our interests and values:
Some highlight of their past behavior include being the driving force in the Democratic Party behind the 2005 bankruptcy bill (they voted 32-4 in favor), the 2006 ending of habeus corpus, the 2007 Iraq War blank check, and the 2008 FISA re-write (see here for both). So far in 2009, they only allowed the stimulus package to go through after extracting a pay-go promise from the Obama administration. Last month, they joined with the New Democrats to block foreclosure relief legislation, which Evan Bayh's Blue Dogs in the Senate seem to have killed. And most of them will vote against the budget, too.
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The new bankster buzzword: "macroprudential oversight"
Here. Translation:,,
Stay in your house no matter what!
For one thing, the banksters lost all the paperwork; as Rep. Marcy Kaptur says: "Show me the note!". But then, if the banksters foreclose and you leave, you could get stuck with maintaining the property anyhow, in a "bank walkaway":
Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure....
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Alabama PACT Roundup
I haven't had much time to blog since last Thursday. Here’s a roundup of coverage of the Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Fund from the weekend, and a few notes on my own plans for the next week or so.
Countrycat explains exactly what is at stake:
we're talking about the future of Alabama's children here, not the stock market or the next election. Will 50,000 or so young PACT beneficiaries get the college education their families thought they paid for or will they be forced to forego dreams of a higher education or end up deep in debt in order to earn a degree?
Politics and Media Headlines 3/31/09
The Rich are not different from you and me… (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
…they eat ramen noodles too. Harrod’s Pot Noodles ($43) come in a hand-flocked gold leaf cup.
America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout (by Chris Hedges at TruthDig, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
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UCC Draws Fire for Condom Distribution Stance
So, there's this church, the UCC. Apparently President Obama is a member of this denomination, but that's probably NOT what drew them to the attention of the "OneNewsNow" organization. Instead, it's that (not unlike the President, on many issues), the UCC is acting on their faith -- and the obligation they see in it to serve their fellow human beings.
The Institute on Religion & Democracy is blasting the religious denomination of President Barack Obama for its recent stance on condom distribution inside houses of worship.
Maybe we should write in to the UCC and support their stance. Here's their position statement as twisted by the American Family Association "newswire" email I received today:
Recently, the HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) said condoms should be handed out at places of worship. The statement was issued during a presentation to the denomination's Wider Church Ministries Board and also advocated making condoms available at faith-based educational settings.
The problem with Obama's health care reform strategery
Time to play the single-payer card
Many prominent progressives like Paul Krugman and Jacob Hacker have argued that the public option is the key to the whole reform process. The public option will constrain the rapacious insurance companies. The public option will be popular and efficient. The public option will be, at its best, a slippery slope to a single-payer plan. Never mind that critics have pointed out that if the public plan is enacted, the insurance companies will find ways to game the system again. Never mind that the Right has recognized the slippery slope argument, and that is why they are so adamantly against it.
GAO: Treat Big Money just like Big Auto
GAO:
The U.S. Treasury should demand that American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued by taxpayers, seek concessions from employees, creditors and derivatives counterparties* as a condition of its aid, the Government Accountability Office said.
“Treasury could require that AIG seek to renegotiate contracts with its employees, similar to the contract for retention bonuses with AIG Financial Products’ employees, and with existing counterparties that would face substantial losses were AIG to have its credit downgraded or fail,” the GAO said.
“If such concessions are not considered to be in the government’s interest, the reasons should be clearly articulated and explained,” it said.
A group of 27 lawmakers last week called for a federal probe into whether AIG should have been forced to renegotiate its counterparty contracts with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other banks.
The U.S. has propped up New York-based AIG four times, with total aid now valued at $182.5 billion, since September after a cash shortage left the insurer unable to back up protection sold to banks on their fixed-income holdings.
You know, there are times when it seems that only the Obama adminitration doesn't get this.
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