Archive for category 2012 Election
Why the Sudden Republican Bipartisanship on One Healthcare Reform Issue? Hypocrisy Maybe?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Campaigns, Economics, House of Representatives on February 26th, 2010
DECIDE TO BE HEALTHY . . . BUT AT WHAT COST?
On Wednesday the House Republicans finally joined the Democrats in a rare accomplishment of voting together on a bill that would repeal a sixty-five (65) year old law allowing insurance companies to have virtual monopolies (oligopolies) over health care insurance. Known as the McCarran-Ferguson Act of (1945), the former anti-trust legislation was designed to give states the power to determine which insurance companies could operate in their states, and investigate collusion by those companies to fix prices and prevent competition.
The reasoning behind repealing the former law was that proponents of the bill believe it allowed a few companies in each state to work in concert to control health insurance, given that the health insurance industry is now dominated by a handful of major players due to consolidation through mergers. Those that opposed the bill – including insurance industry companies and their industry associations – claim that the regulatory agencies in the various states that have oversight of insurance companies already limit the amount of premium increases the companies can charge customers. Of course “limit” is a relative term – particularly when the recent health insurance premiums increases demanded by insurance companies in the various states are projected to rise at alarming rates.
The problem with that argument – that state insurance commissions can adequately regulate the insurance industry – is that there is overwhelming evidence that state insurance regulatory commissions are a revolving door for insurance industry insiders. Want to guess who’s side they are on? It’s like asking the fox to guard the chicken coop.
Thus, it makes sense that Republicans went along with the repeal of the previous legislation given that recent spate of news regarding substantial increases in health care premiums. Republican leaders said that this was a just a political-motivated ploy by the Democrats in a memo circulated to their members just before the vote took place. The exact language from the memo was ”[for] political calculations, rather than substantive reasons.” So why did they then turn right around and vote for it if it was a “politically-motivated ploy”? Will Senate Republicans do the same thing?
Republicans cannot have it both ways. Maybe their vote is politically-motivated to ensure that they are re-elected in the November 2010 mid-term elections (yes, the one coming up this Fall)?
What a bunch of hypocrites!
Why Good Non-partisan Politicians Like Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Dennis Moore (D-KS) Throw in the Towel
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Campaigns, Conservatives, How and Why We Get Screwed, Uncategorized on February 16th, 2010
These two men are the “poster children” for what’s really wrong with Congress and American Politics
You only need to look at their recently announced retirements – Bayh’s came yesterday and Moore’s was back in November 2009 - in order to divine that something is seriously amiss.
They are NOT Liberal Democrats. These are both very mainstream Centrists, at times even leaning a bit to the Conservative side. Moreover, it is highly unlikely either one of them would have lost their seats in the next election cycle. They were both very popular – especially with independents and Republican moderates – and they both have huge campaign war chests.
So why quit?
Evan Bayh’s stated reasons given at the press conference for his retirement announcement yesterday speaks volumes:
“There is too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving,” he said yesterday. “Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples’ business is not being done.”
And although Dennis Moore has not stated the same sentiments publicly – and I have known Dennis for a number of years – I have a very strong visceral instinct that such is the case. If so, we are witnessing the disappearance of the political Centrists/Moderates, and an even greater polarization of the political spectrum.
Moreover, the inexplicable hatred of President Obama by the Right Wing - and blanket criticism of everything he does (or does not do) – defies logic and reason. Because of this insane hatred and the incendiary punditry, we are now treading down a very dangerous pathway; it does not bode well for the future of our country, or the security of this nation.
Are you listening America?
Corporate American is a Non-sensical Legal Fantasy
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Business and Money, Campaign Finance Reform, Campaigns, Capitalism, Financial Terrorists, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, Politics, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich on February 15th, 2010
![Corporate American [Tom Tomorrow]](http://screwedus.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Corporate-American-Tom-Tomorrow.bmp "Corporate American [Tom Tomorrow]")
THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE-AMERICAN [from TOM TOMORROW'S "MODERN WORLD" - published at Salon.com]
Here are the clones your U.S. Supreme Court truly elevated to the status of human beings in order to finally ensure that justice prevails – in other words, that Freedom of Speech and the political system can be bought and owned by the highest bidders.
Now how soon do the other four seats on the court go up for sale? Our corporations deserve to speak with one voice, and they now have the right ($$$) to make sure it’s the only voice heard!
Enjoy your democracy while it lasts, America.
Thank Goodness Obama Healthcare Reform is Dead? Caveat Emptor . . .
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Bailouts, Banking, Budget, Budget & Deficit, Budget Deficit, Business and Money, Campaigns, Capitalism, Conservatives, Economics, Financial Crisis, Financial Terrorists, Government, Healthcare Reform, How and Why We Get Screwed, Medicare, Sarah Palin, Show Them the $$$, Wall Street, Wealth Disparity & the Ultra Rich, economy, financial industry on February 12th, 2010
This is the face of the future for Republican Health Care and Social Security Reform – memorize it!
Now remember all of those terrifying Town Hall meetings in the Summer of 2009, where all you heard about on a daily basis were “Death Panels” and Medicare cuts, and Big Brother’s government bureaucrats making decisions about both the quality and quantity of health care you were going to receive?
You have nothing to worry about. Obama’s Health Care Reform is likely all but dead, and many of you will try to vote the Republicans back into power in this Fall’s mid-term elections so that they can protect you from Obama’s scary Socialist Big Government. Hip, Hip, Hooray (or is that Horror?) for their brand of Capitalism and individual freedom.
Except for one thing. The Republicans do not intend to protect you from anything (remember, that’s the point of shrinking government support). Including going broke in your retirement years from either rising health care costs, or diminishing retirement income. Think I am kidding? This is not hyperbole!
Ignore what follows at your own peril . . .
At the 2009 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) - this is the Superbowl of Conservative power-brokers, with Glenn Beck as their 2010 Keynote Speaker - Republican Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) proposed that Medicare be completely dismantled, and replaced by a system of vouchers for seniors to purchase health insurance in the private sector.
Make no mistake about it: this will be the platform for the Republicans’ answer on how to reform health care once they are back in power. Do you doubt that? Well, Fox News reported that Ryan has been annointed as “the leader of future of the conservative movement.” That’s code for Republican Presidential nominee. He is their visionary, and here is his vision for American retirees’ Medicare and social security safety nets.
According to The Economist magazine, and an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Ryan’s “daring plan” will stimulate both the health insurance industry, as well as the health care industry, while slowing the growth of government health care spending; which is great if you are a Republican rising star like Ryan, who receives almost 40% of his political campaign contributions from health-related industries and their beneficiaries.
What’s not so great for retirees is that the CBO analysis shows why this is so great for the government and those industries: the dollar value of those vouchers you are going to get under Ryan’s plan will not rise as quickly as the projected costs of health care. Which means retirees will have higher out-of-pocket expenses as time goes on. And you can be certain that if those costs are going up, your private health insurance will also be going up at an equally rising rate – after all, they have to make a profit. That’s Capitalism. Right?
Another great thing about this plan – but not so great for retirees – is that the cost to the government will continue to grow more slowly because, as the CBO projections show, people will use less health care when they have to increasingly pay more and more out of their own pockets. Remember last summer when Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers scared you about the government rationing health care? Now you can do it to yourself!
In essence, Ryan’s Republican plan would make the government go broke more slowly than American retirees will, while temporarily keeping this growing health care crisis at bay another decade or two, and increase the profits of health-related industries along the way, forcing you to resort to receiving less and less health care as you grow older.
Don’t believe me? Do the math. It’s really that simple.
And Remember: Under the Republican Healthcare Reform Plan you will NOT even have Medicare supplemental insurance to fall back on. You wanted government out of your life . . . you got it!
So be happy you are not going to get Health Care Reform from Obama. I don’t mean to alarm you – especially after the Republicans scared you sufficiently enough to ensure health care reform would not get passed. After all, now they are free to begin selling you their notion of a “free market” alternative. Caveat emptor (”buyer beware”).
And recall the proverbial admonishment: “Be careful what you wish for . . . you just might get it.”
Happy retirement, America. 
P.S. Ryan’s “free market plan” also calls for Social Security to be completely dismantled, and privatized. Surely the impact of that policy is not lost on anyone after the global financial markets collapsed for the second time in a decade – losing almost 40% of their value in both downturns, with average investment returns for the past ten (10) years of about 1%. What if your social security safety net was invested there? Hint: it’s not a “free market” proposal - the government will limit your choices on how you can invest your social security retirement. Are you really so naive as to think Wall Street won’t have their greedy fingers in that enormous financial pie? They own Washington, D.C.!
Wizards of Moronic Destruction (WMD) in Louisiana Watergate Have Assured Senator Landrieu’s Re-election
Posted by Lance Haley in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Campaigns, Conservatives, Crime & Punishment, Glenn Beck, How and Why We Get Screwed, Legal & Justice, National Security, Politics, crime on February 11th, 2010
Well if you are too young to remember the Watergate scandal, it almost tore America apart at the seams. In fact, our country has never been as close to a Constitutional crisis as it was back in 1974, when President Richard Nixon was serving his second term in office. With impeachment proceedings looming, Nixon was forced to resign as President of the United States for his participation in the Whitehouse’s cover-up of a burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices in the Watergate office building in Washington, D. C. by Republican operatives at the direction of staff members of the Nixon Administration.
This is certainly not to insinuate that anything as remotely sinister as the Watergate scandal crimes against the country took place down in Louisiana near the end of January. However, there are some very strange similarities that cannot be overlooked in respect to the Watergate burglars and the perpetrators of this political criminal escapade in Louisiana.
First, in both cases at least one of the men had a relatively cozy relationship to a U.S. intelligence agency. E. Howard Hunt was a former C.I.A. officer, and one of the Whitehouse operatives who planned and helped execute the break-in of the offices of the DNC. In the present case, it was reported today that Stanley Dai was the assistant director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence program at Trinity Washington University, a small Catholic college in Washington D.C., – a program completely funded by the National Intelligence Agency. Moreover, Dai was listed as the principle contact for a symposium that featured officials of the National Intelligence Council, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the C.I.A.
Second, in both cases one of the participants has a “relationship” to a federal law enforcement agency. In Watergate, it was the still-infamous G. Gordon Liddy, a former F.B.I. agent who assisted Hunt in the planning and execution of the burglary. In the Louisiana case, one of the participants is Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan.
Third, it should come as no irony that in each of these cases the actors were low-level political hacks obviously trying to infiltrate offices of Democratic party members and engage in politically-motivated espionage in order to win an election. It should not be lost on anyone that for these petty criminals, democracy is far too dangerous to be left in the hands of the your political opponents.
Finally, the participation in the Louisiana case by one of the principles in the political “sting operation” to discredit ACORN - a molehill that looks bigger than a mountain to Glenn Beck’s deranged mind – should give a whole new meaning to political karma.
To James O’Keefe: a word of advice - acting like a big pimp when you are just a little political whore will eventually catch up with you.
Running the U.S.A. With Crib Notes and Giving the Country a Hand Job
Posted by Lance Haley in 2012 Election, Campaigns, Conservatives, Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Party on February 10th, 2010
. . . and Teabaggers and Conservatives are worried about how Obama is running this country?
When Whitehouse Press Secretary Robert Gibbs used crib notes scribbled on his palm in a tongue-in-cheek imitation of Sarah Palin’s speech to the Teabag Party Convention this past weekend, it was a mockery of Palin that ranks up there with some of Tina Fey’s material -
Here is a close-up of Palin’s hand at the Teabagger Convention.
Please, Please, Please Republicans! Run her in 2012. Pleasssssssssssseeeee?
December 21, 2012: Apocalyptic End or a Little Nothing?
Posted by Lance Haley in 2012 Election, Conservatives, Humor, Sarah Palin, Sports, Uncategorized on January 1st, 2010
Having just read an Op-Ed piece on the Y2K “problem” that was to occur on January 1, 2000, one cannot help but be amused by the predictions now being bandied around regarding the Mayan Calender’s prediction of a global “End of Days” scenario for December 21, 2012.
The pending Y2K catastrophe predicted a global-encompassing technological calamity which would result in utter chaos and wide-spread death as a consequence of a systemic computer-chip design flaw in their internal clocks that failed to account for the change from the calender years of the 1900’s over to the 2000’s . Untold billions of dollars were spent worldwide for both preparation and prevention of the potential problems associated with this impending disaster – including concerns over airplanes falling out of the skies, as well as nuclear reactors melting-down and exploding – all of which had the feel of an apocalyptic ending to life as we knew it.
What ultimately occurred was a big nothing.
Since man first walked the face of the earth, predictions of doom and gloom have filled his vivid imagination. Religion and mystical beliefs have served as a buffer against the seemingly hopelessness of these scenarios. The associated writings and stories told of global catastrophe are offered as prophetic warnings to our vulnerable minds of the need to prepare ourselves for survival, and our souls for redemption.
This author’s prediction for December 21, 2012: just another Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth, marking the tilting of the planet in a position furthest from the Sun .
In other words, too freaking cold to play golf for roughly ninety days. If repenting will change that, please forgive me all my earthly transgressions ASAP so I can go back out on the golf course next weekend with all my heathen buddies and commence to sinnin’ all over again.
P.S. Of course, my prediction is predicated on the notion that Sarah Palin will not win the Presidential election on November 6, 2012. If she does . . . all bets are off given that Mother Earth is probably just going to end it all before Palin gets her chance to fulfill the prophecy. In that case, I will play golf on December 20, 2012 no matter how much freaking snow there is on the ground.
The First American Quitters Family
Posted by Lance Haley in 2012 Election, Campaigns, Conservatives, Government, Politics, Uncategorized on October 5th, 2009
Have you ever heard of a Husky that quit pulling it’s sled in the Iditarod? Ever seen a picture of a salmon give up swimming upstream even with bears sitting in the rapids waiting for them to jump? Can you ever recall a sitting governor of a state resign mid-term because the media was so tough on them and their energy was better spent focusing on other things? Oh, I almost forgot, that last one has occurred – just one time. The others . . . NEVER!
Now Sarah “I’m no quitter” Palin and husband Todd are officially The First American Quitters Family. The guy that catches salmon and runs in the Iditarod has just announced that he is leaving his oil field job to “spend more time with his family.” You betcha, WINK, WINK.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, my Conservative friends . . . make her the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012. That is what she and Todd are setting the stage for anyway with all of this “quit whatever you are doing in Alaska and get your dumb asses down here in the lower 48 if you want to rate” whispers.
Listen. Even if Obama never accomplishes anything as President (and that is looking more and more plausible with each passing day), he can still beat her while continuously traveling all around the world during the 2012 Presidential Campaign, trying to get the winning bid for the 2040 World Curling Championships to be held in Detroit. All she has to do is give a few campaign speeches, do her best “going rogue” routine with Independent voters watching, and sit down for a handful of spontaneous interviews with some of those ”gotch ya” liberal political reporters, with all of their “tricky questions” (like, “Governor, can you tell me what body of water does Afghanistan lie next to?”), and you can stick a fork in her.
SHE’S DONE and he’s WON!
P.S. None of Afghanistan’s borders are bounded by water, and there is not a significant body of water within several hundred miles of Afghanistan. I won a beer betting on that fact one night in a bar with several of my Conservative buddies shortly after 9/11. We had a retired U.S. Marine who happened to be tending bar that night settle the dispute for us. Was that beer extra tasty? You betcha!
P.S.S. In 2040, the average daytime temperature in the winter in Detroit will probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of 123 degrees Farenheit. They will have to hold the World Curling Championships in the Mayor’s office in City Hall since that will be the only public place in town that will still be allowed to have a window air conditioner installed in order to “keep it cool”. By then, people will be “Wintering” in Wasilla, Alaska, with it’s posh new Bed and Breakfast run by an elderly couple who just quit their consulting business (How to Quit a Job Without Consequences) in order to “come back home”.