The Lie Machine

For once it's not the comedians who tell America the truth...It's the magazine dedicated to Rock. You want the hard hitting truth on the Tea Baggers and the GOP you don't go to mainstream media, you go to Rolling Stone...

GOP operatives are running a secret campaign to kill health care reform, and it's based on Karl Rove's old playbook

...Conservatives for Patients' Rights, has direct connections to the health care industry. Its founder, Rick Scott, is the former CEO of Columbia/HCA...

"The Lie Machine"

Be sure to read up on the Frist Family connection to all this. Remember Columbia Health Care?

Quote of the Day

We asked for signs, and the signs were sent
The birth betrayed, the marriage spent
Yeah, the widowhood of every single government
Signs for all to see

I can't run no more with that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places say their prayers out loud
But they've summoned up a thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen

Sunday Reader

Quote of the day...

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda (You thought it was Karl Rove, didn't you?)

Here's another one...

"The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort the social processes it is intended to monitor."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-bracey/nine-myths-about-public-s_b_298664.html

That should get everyone stirred up.

Peace,

Steve

Monster on the Lawn

I found this monster on my office lawn just now...

A slightly less frightening view of the monster...

A Jolly Old Eft

This little guy looked fake when I first noticed him. The bulging belly tells me that the rains have brought excellent feeding for terrestrial salamanders. This one is almost large enough to make the transition from this eft stage into the adult newt colors and return to the water. They will begin mating just after mid winter. I've seen them swimming under the ice in river side pools.



Below is another local terrestrial, a red salamander. Unlike the young eft above, this guy is a great great granpa, maybe 15 years old or more.

Quote of the Day Part 2

"Politicians may be scared to push for radical reductions in emissions because some of the necessary changes to the way we live won't please voters," said Dr Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of the BMJ. "Doctors are under no such constraint. On the contrary we have a responsibility as health professionals to warn people how bad things are likely to get if we don't act now. The good news is that we have a positive message - that what is good for the climate is good for health."

Quote of the Day... South Park Edition

"I play myself, meaning the son of Satan, the spawn of evil," Rove said.

Remote Area Medical Care for Impoverished Third World Community

Nope...Not Rwanda in Africa. Rwanda has Universal Health Care, America doesn't. So where in the world will Stan Brock's Remote Area Medical organization bring their volunteer medical staff and equipment so that people who can't afford decent medical care can see doctors and nurses and get taken care of?

..That Would be Roane County, Tennessee.

Remote Area Medical

And go read this interview after you're through the initial shame of how we've turned over our country to big corporations. And while you're at it, think about the fact that you've learned this from me instead of your local big media outlets.

Think about that, will you?

Steve

Our Health Care Situation as it Stands Now

Quote of the Day

Knowing how right wing the Republican Party has become, my only bad moment with Barack Obama during the campaign was when he said he was going to be post partisan and I got post-partisan depression because I knew that that meant dealing with these people.

Who else but Barney Frank

The President and the Republican Money Ho

I was outraged and sickened when I heard Joe Wilson R-SC yell at President Obama last night as he spoke to the joint session of Congress.

This is a man doing his best to destroy civil discourse in America. His actions are un-American and anti- Democracy. I would be interested in seeing his donor list, wouldn't you? I suspect there won't be many people on it that have lost their jobs and their healthcare insurance along with it. I suspect there won't be many people who have had to file bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills caused by a catastrophic illness. I suspect there won;t be many people who thought they had insurance coverage only to get sick and find that their policy got cancelled on a technicality, even though they had paid their premiums for years. I suspect his donor list will not include the many people who have a job but want to improve themselves by advancing to another company but they can't because they have a pre-existing condition and will lose their insurance if they try to move. I suspect Wilson's donor list does not include anyone who is working but can't get insurance because they have a medical history. I suspect Joe Wilson's donor list will show that he is a whore for the insurance and healthcare industries.

And it does!



In calling the President "Liar" live on national television, Congressman Joe Wilson proved two things beyond any doubt...First, Joe Wilson is the liar. The President's statement that healthcare reform does not cover illegal immigrants is easily fact checked and absolutely true. More damning is the other thing that he proved last night...Joe Wilson does not represent the people of his South Carolina Congressional District...

He represents the MONEY!

Courage,

Steve



Here is the executive summary of the plan President Obama supports:

The President's Plan for Health Reform

“It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance.
It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care
for our families, our businesses, and our government."
– PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

If You Have Health Insurance,
the President's Plan:

• Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.
• Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.
• Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.
• Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get sick.
• Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money.
• Protects Medicare for seniors.
• Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs.

If You Don’t Have Insurance,
the President's Plan:

• Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.
• Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance.
• Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.
• Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.
• Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created.

For All Americans,
the President's Plan:

• Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.
• Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized.
• Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.
• Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.
• Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.
• Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.

Quote of the Day...Guess Who and Guess When

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

The Speech that Un-patriotic Un-American Creeps Don't Want Your Child to Hear

This whole "Be afraid of our President" thing disgusts me.

I'm disgusted, not because of the garbage that these right wing Republican creeps just make up (I expect as much), but because the American Media has completely failed us in the process and not only letting them get away with the lies but by carrying and amplifying their idiotic claims. This is an attack on public schools. This is an attack on America! This is a failure of the constitutional role that the Press is supposed to fulfill in our democracy. I'm tired of it.

Rather than point out the inaccuracies and absurdities and laugh at this idiocy, the Press allowed themselves to be played by right wingers, and used as a megaphone for outrageous claims. "The President is going to brainwash students with his speech." "The President should not be allowed to preach socialism to school children." Well thank you, American Media, for your contribution to freedom. "

Here is the speech that anti-American right wingers are afraid for their children to hear.

The real reason they are so afraid of President Obama's speech is that if their children actually listen to Obama they may realize that he is an intelligent, rational, thoughtful, coherent, voice telling them to work hard, study hard, stay in school, and that there are no excuses for failure.

A dangerous message, that!

Courage,

Steve

Quote of the Day

Only in nutzoid America can the president of the United States propose telling the nation's schoolchildren about the importance of a good education, encouraging them to study hard and resist drugs - only to have "concerned" parents and educational authorities try to silence him.

Sam Venable