Category: America

Pappy Bush Loses It, Calls Olbermann and Maddow ‘Sick Puppies’

Posted on by TL

Yes, you heard right. It’s true. Former President George H.W. Bush actually lowered himself to take a shot at MSNBC news anchors Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow “sick puppies.” The nation’s forty-first president made these remarks in an interview with CBS radio purportedly as a means of explaining why there is a lack of civility in politics today.

"I don’t like it," Bush said. "I think the cables have a lot to do with it. I’ll take you back to when I was president we got tons of criticism but didn’t seem day in and day out quite as personal as some of these talk show people."

"And it’s not just the right," Bush 41 continued, "There’s plenty of people on the left. If you want me to name a couple of names I’ll be glad to do that for you."

"Go ahead," the CBS reporter says.

"Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow," Bush said. "I mean here are a couple of sick puppies."

"And the way they treat my son and treat anybody that’s opposed to their point of view is just horrible."

Reached by phone, Karl Rove said, "Irony is dead."

Okay, I just made up that last quote.

I now present Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in “The Response”:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

 

Olbermann: Insurer Ends Health Program, Calls High-Cost Patients “Dogs”

Posted on by TL

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here’s the beginning of the story from the Washington Times:

Ian Pearl has fought for his life every day of his 37 years. Confined to a wheelchair and hooked to a breathing tube, the muscular dystrophy victim refuses to give up.

But his insurance company already has.

Legally barred from discriminating against individuals who submit large claims, the New York-based insurer simply canceled lines of coverage altogether in entire states to avoid paying high-cost claims like Mr. Pearl’s.

In an e-mail, one Guardian Life Insurance Co. executive called high-cost patients such as Mr. Pearl "dogs" that the company could "get rid of."

A federal court quickly ruled that the company’s actions were legal, so on Dec. 1, barring an order by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Pearl will lose his benefits.

His medical treatment costs $1 million a year.

Most of that is for ’round the clock, in-home nursing care – for operation of his ventilator, hourly breathing treatments and continuous intravenous medication.

(Corrected paragraph:) A Guardian spokesman said policies such as Mr. Pearl’s – which offered unlimited home nursing – had simply become too expensive for new small-business customers to buy, and that even Medicaid and Medicare do not cover 24-hour home nursing. His parents, Warren and Susan Pearl of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said their health insurance premiums had risen over the years to $3,700 a month.

You can contact Guardian Life Insurance Company here.

And now for your moment of Zen…

President & CEO Dennis J. Manning touts Guardian Life’s financial strength on the company’s Web site:

Two Rating Upgrades 
Guardian earned upgrades from two major credit rating organizations in 2008, a distinction that no other major life insurer can claim. We were one of only five life insurers upgraded by Standard & Poor’s, which raised our rating to AA+ (Very Strong). Additionally, noting Guardian’s “superior capitalization,” “successful execution of key strategic initiatives,” and our “comprehensive risk management strategy,” A.M. Best Company awarded us its highest rating, A++ (Superior). Only six other life insurers received ratings upgrades from A.M. Best last year.

Operating on Firm Financial Footing 
Guardian generated good financial results last year, in spite of challenging economic conditions. Pre-tax statutory income – the primary way we build capital and surplus – was $267 million. Capital, which serves to cushion potential adverse events and functions as a source of continuing future income, was $4.3 billion at year end. And our capitalization ratio, a standard industry measure of capital strength, was 14.7%. We believe this ratio is among the highest in the life insurance industry.

Record Dividend Payout
Guardian’s solid financial results, supported by a prudent investment strategy, allowed us to avoid many of the losses suffered by so many other companies and put us in a strong competitive position, which we leveraged to benefit policyholders. We declared the largest ever dividend payout in our 149-year history, paying a record $723 million dividend to policyholders in 2009, $60 million more than we did in 2008.

Good for them.

Remember 37-year-old Ian Pearl on December 1, 2009,

Christopher Columbus and The Myth of ‘America’

Posted on by TL

From ENEWSPF:

To mark Columbus Day In 2004, the Medieval and Renaissance Center in UCLA published the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents. Its general editor, Geoffrey Symcox, leaves little room for ambivalence when he says, “This is not your grandfather’s Columbus…. While giving the brilliant mariner his due, the collection portrays Columbus as an unrelenting social climber and self-promoter who stopped at nothing – not even exploitation, slavery, or twisting biblical scripture – to advance his ambitions…. Many of the unflattering documents have been known for the last century or more, but nobody paid much attention to them until recently. The fact that Columbus brought slavery, enormous exploitation or devastating diseases to the Americas used to be seen as a minor detail – if it was recognized at all – in light of his role as the great bringer of white man’s civilization to the benighted idolatrous American continent. But to historians today this information is very important. It changes our whole view of the enterprise.”

But does it?

I don’t want to jump on the annual “bash Christoper Columbus” bandwagon.  But this article is worth your consideration.

Read more here.

GOP’s Olympia Snowe On Board for Democratic Health Care Reform Bill

Posted on by TL

Already referenced here, t his one deserves its own headline.

From WTAE Pittsburgh:

Washington– Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe broke with her party Tuesday and said she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, handing President Barack Obama a much-sought boost in his quest to expand access to medical coverage to all Americans.

Approval of the legislation by the Senate Finance Committee was a foregone conclusion going into Tuesday’s vote, since Democrats outnumber Republicans 13-10 on the panel. But Snowe’s decision gave the vote a significance that transcends partisan divisions. For months, congressional Republicans have been virtually unanimous in denouncing the Democratic bills as an unwarranted expansion of government influence.

The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing about how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. She told her colleagues she has misgivings about the bill, but "when history calls, history calls."

Perhaps the ice is thawing between Democrats and Republicans. It would be nice to have Senator John McCain on board too. That would be good for the country.

Read more.

Will Health Insurance Industry Report Be Enough to Set Congress on Fire?

Posted on by TL

The health insurance industry issued a report that has Democrats fuming, finally. Will it be enough to set Congress on fire for reform?

From the Sun-Times:

Insurance companies aren’t playing nice any more.

Their message that health care legislation will drive up premiums for people who already have coverage comes as a warning shot at a key point in the debate and threatens President Obama’s top domestic priority.

Democrats and their allies scrambled on Monday to knock down a new industry-funded study forecasting that Senate legislation, over time, will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical policy. “Distorted and flawed,” said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. “Fundamentally dishonest,” said AARP’s policy strategist, John Rother. “A hatchet job,” said a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

But the health insurance industry’s top lobbyist in Washington stood her ground. In a call with reporters, Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, pointedly refused to rule out attack ads on TV featuring the study, though she said she believed the industry’s concerns could be amicably addressed.

At the heart of the industry’s complaint is a decision by lawmakers to weaken the requirement that millions more Americans get coverage. Since the legislation would ban insurance companies from denying coverage on account of poor health, many people will wait to sign up until they get sick, the industry says. And that will drive up costs.

The first sentence of this article is absurd, “Insurance companies aren’t playing nice any more.”

When have the insurance companies ever played nice? It’s not about playing nice. It’s not about health insurance profits. It’s about people’s lives against an industry’s quest for obscene profits.

The good news today is that GOP Senator Olympia Snowe says she will support the reform bill currently in the Senate Finance Committee. The rest of the GOP and the Conservadems need to jump on board also.

Look, the New Deal was passed because the rich got it. They understood that a 90% tax rate on upper income brackets was good for everyone in the economy, including the rich! Do the rich really want to see the United States return to a Gilded Age with tent cities popping up in ever suburb?

I’ve said it before: the for-profit health insurance industry should be illegal. The purpose of the industry is to make a profit, an obscene profit.

Congress needs to finally feel the fire. Right now it’s burning us alive.

Business Week: Job Crisis Hits Young People Especially Hard

Posted on by TL

As if we need any more proof that we’ve all hit hard times, Business Week focuses on the trouble young people are having finding employment.

I’ve heard enough stories about recent college graduates lucky to get part time jobs in the fast food industry. It’s bad. The money isn’t flowing — or what little we have is all flowing to pay off the credit card industry.

Americans would be wise to abandon the credit card industry. Pay them off, and tear them up. They are absolute bastards. All of them.

From Business Week:

Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can’t grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.

For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Read more here.

2009 Nobel Peace Prize Announcement

Posted on by TL

I know so much water has already gone under the bridge about this.  For what it’s worth, I want to have the complete Nobel Peace Prize Announcement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee here on Turning Left for the benefit of our readers, and myself:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

Oslo, October 9, 2009

Nobel Committee Head Defends Obama Peace Prize

Posted on by TL

From ChannelNewsAsia.com:

OSLO – The head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee on Saturday defended its controversial decision to give the award to US President Barack Obama, saying his work so far justified the honour.

“He could have also had it too late,” Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters.

“Can someone tell me who did more than him this year? It is difficult to name a winner of the peace prize who is more in line with Alfred Nobel’s will.”

Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister, said “we are capturing the spirit of the times, the needs of the era.”

He and the committee’s four other members caused shockwaves on Friday by announcing that Obama had won the Nobel, praising his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

The committee attached “special importance to Obama’s vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Does anyone recall this much controversy over the Nobel Peace Prize since Yassar Arafat won along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994?

President Obama’s Weekly Address: New Momentum for Health Reform

Posted on by TL

Washington, D.C.– The historic movement to bring real, meaningful health insurance reform to the American people gathered momentum this week as we approach the final days of this debate. Having worked on this issue for the better part of a year, the Senate Finance Committee is finishing deliberations on their version of a health insurance reform bill that will soon be merged with other reform bills produced by other Congressional committees.

After evaluating the Finance Committee’s bill, the Congressional Budget Office – an office that provides independent, nonpartisan analysis – concluded that the legislation would make coverage affordable for millions of Americans who don’t have it today. It will bring greater security to Americans who have coverage, with new insurance protections. And, by attacking waste and fraud within the system, it will slow the growth in health care costs, without adding a dime to our deficits.

This is another milestone on what has been a long, hard road toward health insurance reform. In recent months, we’ve heard every side of every argument from both sides of the aisle. And rightly so – health insurance reform is a complex and critical issue that deserves a vigorous national debate, and we’ve had one. The approach that is emerging includes the best ideas from Republicans and Democrats, and people across the political spectrum.

In fact, what’s remarkable is not that we’ve had a spirited debate about health insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it. This consensus encompasses everyone from doctors and nurses to hospitals and drug manufacturers.

And earlier this week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg came out in support of reform, joining two former Republican Senate Majority Leaders: Bob Dole and Dr. Bill Frist, himself a cardiac surgeon. Dr. Louis Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush, supports reform. As does Republican Tommy Thompson, a former Wisconsin governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. These distinguished leaders understand that health insurance reform isn’t a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, but an American issue that demands a solution.

Still, there are some in Washington today who seem determined to play the same old partisan politics, working to score political points, even if it means burdening this country with an unsustainable status quo. A status quo of rising health care costs that are crushing our families, our businesses, and our government. A status quo of diminishing coverage that is denying millions of hardworking Americans the insurance they need. A status quo that gives big insurance companies the power to make arbitrary decisions about your health care. That is a status quo I reject. And that is a status quo the American people reject.

The distinguished former Congressional leaders who urged us to act on health insurance reform spoke of the historic moment at hand and reminded us that this moment will not soon come again. They called on members of both parties seize this opportunity to finally confront a problem that has plagued us for far too long.

That is what we are called to do at this moment. That is the spirit of national purpose that we must summon right now. Now is the time to rise above the politics of the moment. Now is the time to come together as Americans. Now is the time to meet our responsibilities to ourselves and to our children, and secure a better, healthier future for generations to come. That future is within our grasp. So, let’s go finish the job.

Source: whitehouse.gov

Gay Rights Activists Want More From Obama

Posted on by TL

Gay rights protesters demonstrate outside the Beverly Hills hotel, where U.S. President Barack Obama attended a Democratic Party fundraiser in May.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Many of the gay rights activists who will hear President Obama speak at the Human Rights Campaign banquet in Washington, D.C., Saturday worked to get him elected.

They had realistic expectations of what he could do for them if he won, but they have grown impatient with a president who has said nice things but done little more than extend limited rights to federal employees’ same-sex partners.

Obama determined that granting health benefits to same-sex partners was beyond his authority.

“I don’t care what he says Saturday night — I want to see what he does,” Illinois Equality Now founder Rick Garcia said.

This is the second major olive branch Obama has extended to the gay community. He had a White House reception in June at which he tried to reassure his skeptical gay supporters to give him time.

Will Obama have some gay rights legislation or an administrative order in hand when he appears at the gala Saturday night on the eve of the activists’ march on Washington?

Attendees are hoping he has more than just a good speech for the more than 3,000 expected to attend.

Tickets for the gala were quite expensive. This crowd has deep pockets. Others, not lucky or well-off-enough to get in, are expected to protest Obama’s appearance.

Is Obama chasing rainbow money, or will he remember the promises he made to those now protesting in the street?