And we'll keep on fighting to the end

So the Health Care Reform bill passed the house tonight, but not without some drama.

You see some crazy screwed-up things in the bloggersphere and Twitterverse, especially from right. And the craziest stuff has been from tea-partier types, with muddled ldeologies ranging Randian Glibertarians to authority-seeking right-wingers.

But tonight, when Twitter was flying a00 mph with both pregressive and conservative Tweets, debating and arguing the impending Health Care legislation vote, we got this:


Solly really should know better, because that kind of crap is seriously verboten. No serious GWBush hater ever wished for his demise, that isn't done in polite society. But the right these days seem driven by hate.

Hortense at Jezebel has more:

Forell then followed that tweet up with this one:

That tag he added? #TCOT? It stands for "top conservatives on Twitter."

According to his Google profile, Forell is the author of a blog titled Barack Obama Was An American Electorate Mistake, which centers around Forell's disappointment in Obama's presidency. This disappointment spills over into Forell's other blogs, including Anybody But Barack Obama 2012, and The Audacity of Hype, which both touch upon Forrell's disgust with the "cult" of Obama, "a man who has done little with his life, but has written about his achievements as ifhe had found the cure for cancer in between winning a marathon and building a nuclear reactor with his teeth."

Forell may think he's protected by the First Amendment when it comes to his tweets, but the law begs to differ, specifically 18 USC Sec. 871:

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

You'll note however, that there's nothing specified about electronic threats. Perhaps that's why, as of now, Forell's Twitter account does not appear to be suspended; the tweet threatening the President's life was posted roughly six hours ago and has not yet been removed.

Hortense continues:

You'll note however, that there's nothing specified about electronic threats. Perhaps that's why, as of now, Forell's Twitter account does not appear to be suspended; the tweet threatening the President's life was posted roughly six hours ago and has not yet been removed.

Update: While Forell hasn't removed the offensive tweets, he has posted an apologetic P.S.:

Uh, maybe the President would respect your opinion more if you didn't, you know, encourage people to kill him. Just a thought.

Update #2: Forell is now backtracking like crazy, complaining about "whining liberals" and asking that we "all renounce the harsh rhetoric about the POTUS. Several, including myself, hv used inappropriate language. Let's remain civil!" A little too late, I'd say.

Update #3: I just received an email from Twitter, dated 2:55pm PDT, stating the following:

We have removed this profile due to violation of Twitter's Rules, specifically listed under "Content Boundaries and Use of Twitter": *Unlawful Use: You may not use the service for any unlawful purposes or for promotion of illegal activities.

It is against the Twitter Terms of Service to use the service to commit illegal acts. Threatening the life of the president (or president-elect) is a federal offense under Title 18, USC, section 871. All accounts in violation of our Terms of Service are permanently suspended and we report to legal authorities accordingly.

However, as of 6:06 pm EST, Forell's account appears to still be up and running.

Update #4: Sam Gustin at DailyFinance is reporting that the Secret Service is now investigating Forell's tweets, with Secret Service spokesperson Max Milien stating: "We are aware of the actual posting and are actively investigating."

And though Twitter sent an email earlier declaring that Forell's profile had been removed, it appears that only the assassination-related tweets have been deleted from his account: as of 9:00 pm EST, his account still appears to be active.

You'd think that a conservatarian who favors a small government with scads of "Freedoms™" for personal action and free speech would have a clue that even in a virtual anarchy, someone makes the rules. Even in Thunderdome there was a boss. By actually calling for Presidential assassination, one gets the clearly unwanted attention of authorities, whose job it is to protect the POTUS, whether it's GWBush, Richard Nixon, or Barack Obama.

So Solly, that's really sweet you apologized, sort-of, but you went way over the line. If the Secret Service jams you up, it serves you right. You earned it.

Bastard.

And I'm feeling good

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MS) is, on most things, one of the good ones. That's why I was disappointed to see her tweet tonight (on Twitter):

I support public option,as long as private can compete.

My first question is WTF? Seriously? Private insurance companies compete so well that they HAVE NO COMPETITION! They are an oligopoly (many buyers, few sellers) who charge high rates, fix prices, make huge profits, and whose incentive is not to deliver any kind of product, but just make maximum profits.

This is just wrong-headed thinking by anyone, much less a leading Democrat senator.

Here are what some other folks who follow McCaskill on Twitter said:

Isn't that just corporate welfare? Subsidize me, not megacorps.

Private Ins Co's don't need protection from us, we need protected from them. Why else have a Gov't?

Does that mean you want to artificially inflate public option costs so private companies don't have to lower prices?

If they want to compete, they'll adapt. That's what the free market does. Public Option FTW.

the private sector ins cos has been gouging for decades. Why enable them further? They raised my small biz rates 38% in a year.

Indeed. The main reason 47,000,000 Americans have no health insurance is they can't afford it. And insurance companies, every year, post record profits. Medicare is administered with only 2-3% overhead costs, making it the most efficient health care provider in the US.

Can private companies compete with this? I don't give one crap. Blue Cross isn't Starbucks, an impulse or disposable income purchase. It's a virtual necessity. And I don't really single-out Blue Cross, all insurance providers, with few exceptions, are predatory. Health care is one of the glues keeping society together. All 1st world countries except the U.S. have single-payer or socialized medicine. And it works.

If you're a conservatarian who, like the awful phony Grover Norquist, wants to shrink government down so small he can drown it in a bathtub, then you don't have to participate in a "public option". Keep subsidizing Blue Cross's sky-high profits, Just don't stop me from saving money and improving my longevity by using a new, public health care system.

And Sen. McCaskill, please pay attention to polls: Americans favor radical changes in health care. Don't be a conservative on this issue. If Blue Cross and big pharma try to buy you off, come to your constituents, let them know what's happening. You'll still get your needed campaign contributions. Something Senators and Congresspersons have learned: The Netroots rewards good behavior.

Every Breath You Take

ABC News in flap over health care special

ABC News has drawn fire for an upcoming special on President Barack Obama's health care plan after rejecting a Republican request for airtime.
[...]
During the special, the president will discuss his health care plan and answer questions from a cross-section of Americans. [ED: the participants & questions are picked by ABC, not the WH] But the event will not include an official Republican Party response, prompting the Republican National Committee to complain to the network.

"I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers," wrote RNC chief of staff Ken McKay in a letter posted on Drudge Report. "I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime."

Well, in the 1st place, Obama speaks for America, not the democrats and not the DNC. 2nd, not even all democrats are on board, kinda shoots down that whole democratic agenda thing. 3rd, the RNC is a political arm of republican politicians and doesn't even represent the 21% of voters who self-identify as republicans. 4th, to repeat, Americans who will be affected, unlike politicians who already get public health care, get to ask the questions.

Gosh, with their faux outrage, it's almost like they are calling for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated.

The real joke is "I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate"

Republicans Unveil Health Plan but Are Thin on Details

House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn’t know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who heads a GOP health task force, said that when the details are drafted in the coming weeks, they would present a plan that “costs far less than the Democrats’ [plan] and provides better results for the American people.”

But Republicans who stayed at the press conference to answer questions — the leaders made statements but didn’t stay — could not answer whether their plan would include a tax increase to pay for such costly items as refundable tax credits for low- and middle-income workers to help pay for insurance.

Other reforms proposed by the GOP were largely minor tweaks to a system that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said is already the “best health care system in the world.”

“We want to work within the existing market structure,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Of course Boner (R-Boneless) says he has the “best health care system in the world.”, he has the best taxpayer funded health care in the world!

Now let's look at "the existing market structure" of health care:

Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage

Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.

The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals for revamping the nation's healthcare system.

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

One Thing Leads To Another

The media posits, supposedly reflecting the peoples' view republican & MSM concern trolls' view that President Obama is spread too thin, has bit off more than he can chew, can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

After 8 years of a president that couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time, couldn't speak english with or without a telepromter, I welcome a president who can multitask.

And who can figure out that the financial meltdown, oil dependence, health care and education are all interrelated.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome President Obama:

"I know that there are some on Wall Street and in Washington who've said that we should only focus on the banking crisis and one problem at a time. Well, we're spending a lot of time focusing on this banking crisis, and we will continue to do so because until we get liquidity flowing again, we will not fully recover. But the American people don't have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don't have the luxury of choosing to pay either their mortgage or their medical bills. They don't get to pick between paying for their kids' college tuition and saving enough money for retirement. They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems. And as a consequence, so do we."
[...]
Now, there are those who say the plans in this budget are too ambitious to enact; to say that -- they say that in the face of challenges that we face, we should be trying to do less, than more. What I say is that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. The cost of our health care is too high to ignore. The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is growing too wide to ignore. To kick these problems down the road for another four years or another eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point. That's not why I ran for this office. I didn't come here to pass on our problems to the next President or the next generation -- I came here to solve them.

Can anyone argue the points President Obama made?

The US pays more for health care than any country in the world, yet we are 37th in the world for actual health care.

But what about the children!?

29th on Infant Mortality

The infant mortality rate in this country declined sharply in the 20th century but then plateaued from 2000 to 2005.
[...]
In 1960, the United States ranked 12th lowest in the world in infant mortality. By 2004, the last year for which comparative data are available, it had dropped to 29th, tied with Poland and Slovakia.

Gee, I wonder what happened between 2000 and 2005!?

And that's just how health care is tied into our economic troubles. Don't get me started on energy dependence. And education? Well there might be a post soon on that!



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

HeadLyings

Ohh Noes!!! The War On Xmas escalates!

ABC alarmingly reports:

Gift Certificates for an Abortion?

But if you read the original article they quote the ChiTrib article:

Planned Parenthood offering gift certificates

What do you get the person who has everything—except adequate health insurance? If you live in Indiana, consider this offering from the state's Planned Parenthood affiliate: gift certificates in $25 increments.

The vouchers, available online and at 35 clinics statewide, can be used for health services or contraceptives. And yes, they can be used to pay for abortions.

Planned Parenthood provides a service that originally was exactly what the name says; the ability to plan parenthood and not be forced into a pregnancy you're not ready for. Whether it's condoms, pills, IUDs or [gasp!] an abortion, it makes for a better society.

Every day we read what happens to children in houses (these are not homes) that didn't want their children. Quality of life is better than quantity, for all involved.

That said; PP is so much more now. Pap smears, STD tests, prenatal care, cancer screening ... and it's not just for women. The fact is Planned Parenthood has stepped up and become the de facto community health care in many areas for folks who can't afford health insurance but still want to be responsible to/for their loved ones.

ABC should be ashamed of themselves for inflaming the already heated discourse with a headline that belongs in the Nat'l Enquirer. I guess adding a '?' at the end of the headline makes it OK to them.

It's the Xmas season, if you can buy some health care for a person who can't afford it? Now that's a gift that keeps on giving!



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Falling Behind Even Faster

Remember back in the '90s when the the GOP thought it was so grand that they had defeated the Clinton health care plan? Since that time there have been study after study panning the state of health care in the US. We continue to fall behind country after country as the GOP and even some Dems in Congress keep kowtowing to their special interest buddies in industry in turn for campaign funds and special favors. In every one of these studies it shouts at the fact that we, in the U.S., spend more money than other developed countries for health care and we get the least. Everybody in Congress has a good health care plan(paid for by us taxpayers), they're doing just fine while millions of us pay out the nose for just marginal healthcare insurance and millions more of us have no coverage at all.

The GOP and the other fat cats keep telling us we have a free market system but if that was the case shouldn't we buyers be getting more for our money and not less? Well we aren't, and we are falling further and further behind. Now we're #42!

The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.

The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners.

Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.

"The report shows that although America is one of the richest nations in the world, it is woefully behind when it comes to providing opportunity and choices to all Americans to build a better life," the authors said.

Some of its more shocking findings reveal that, in parts of Texas, the percentage of adults who pass through high school has not improved since the 1970s.

crossposted at Fallenmonk

I'm not feelin' too good myself, oh oh

Conservatarians are really stupid. In fact, they might just be too stupid to live. Example: Megan McArdle attempts to swat down Ezra "I know more about health care than anyone alive" Klein:

Ezra Klein offers an analogy about mandates:

First, Obama aside, mandates matter because, sometimes, folks have to be protected from their worst instincts. That's why we force everyone to pay into fire departments through taxes. Otherwise, some folks would opt out under the theory that they don't do much cooking, and we don't want their houses to burn down.

But this is not true. We force everyone to pay into fire departments because fires have very bad negative externalities: if your house catches on fire, unless you live on a rural farm, there's a good chance that your neighbor's house will burn down too. Fire prevention is a genuine public good; most health care, with the exception of things meant to stop the spread of infectious disease, simply isn't.

If she means most health care isn't a genuine public good because it's designed to provide the most profit for the insurance companies, then she's right.

If she means that most health care isn't a genuine public good because healthy, happy workers are more productive and take less time off, then she's off her conservative meds.

And if she means that health care isn't a genuine public good because companies have to pay to help keep their workers healthy and more productive, she's being an idiot.

Too often conservatives adopt simplistic world views: spending money = teh bad. Instead of realising that spending a little money for insurance results in more productivity, not only within a company but within a country, they try to be penny-wise, pound foolish.

And as is often the case, the ideology gets in the way of self-interest. On that note, it's really fun to watch them justify ideology, even when it results in a negative outcome.

Maybe some day they'll grow up.

You don't know how sick you make me

(photo by Cecil Beaton: Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children, 1940, © Imperial War Museum)

John Kerry has the phrase of the day: Roadblock Republicans:

"Today, thirteen Roadblock Republicans joined President Bush to deny health care for 10 million of America’s children,” said Kerry. “Thirteen Republicans put President Bush’s ideological agenda first and put health care for poor children last: behind Halliburton and Blackwater, and behind tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans. Blocking health care for children isn’t compassionate or conservative, and it surely isn't wise. This fight is far from over."

Indeed.

Bastards.