Nader // Current

Why Does the Insurance Industry Support "Reform?"

So if you're a loyal Democrat, you're probably all riled up about the health insurance reform going on in congress. You're probably anxious for Congress to get something, ANYTHING passed. Not so fast there buddy. Health insurance reform, even if it's done by Democrats could end up making things WORSE, not better.

"What? How could this possibly be?" you might ask. Well...

It's old news by now that insurance giant Wellpoint, owner of Maine's Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, is suing the State of Maine, to increase their profits. But you may not know the entire backstory: Anthem Blue Cross, in anticipation of the individual mandate for health insurance, has jacked up their rates 18% from what they were previously, jacking many people's rates through the roof.

What may surprise you if you're not paying close attention, is that the Health Insurance industry is actually in favor of health insurance "reform." How could this be? Did they suddenly grow a concience, and decide that letting people die to increase their profit margin was wrong? Are they crying out to Big Government to regulate them like Sinners calling out to Jesus? "Please, Government! Save us from our own wicked nature!"

Not a chance in Hell.

It's no surprise that Wellpoint has run television ads in favor of the health insurance "reform" being pushed by Democrats in Congress. If the individual mandate becomes a final part of the bill, whether you can afford to or not, we will all end up having to pay these new increased rates, or face federal fines of up to three thousand dollars, depending on which version of the individual mandate ends up in the final bill.

Maine's state government has the power to regulate insurance rates. In light of this 18% increase, the State of Maine stepped in, and reduced the increase from 18% to 11%. So people's rate are still going up, and health insurance is still becoming less affordable. But that wasn't enough for the private insurance giant.

Last year Wellpoint made $2 billion in profits. In Maine alone, they've paid out over one million dollars in CEO bonuses. Rather than cut CEO bonuses to reduce their overhead, they are increasing their rates. Let's call a spade a spade. Wellpoint is essentially suing to ensure not their profit margin, but their CEO bonus margin.

[full article at link]So if you're a loyal Democrat, you're probably all riled up about the health insurance... more

asherp
added this
24 days ago
|
1 comment

Monty Python's War : A Killing Joke ?

Powell warned of ‘terror-industrial complex’ in 2007 interview When MSNBC's... more

WhiteNoise
added this
1 month ago
|
4 comments

The Fifty Top U.S. War Criminals Who Need To Be Prosecuted

NOTE : I KNOW THIS IS EMBARASSING TO THE HILT FOR A NATION THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON BEING HOME OF THE BRAVE & FREE BUT REALITY REARS ITS UGLY HEAD; WHAT CAN I SAY BUT PLEASE RATIONALIZE THE DIGNITY NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH THIS MISSION BY REMEMBERING THAT GOLDEN RULE WE ARE ALL SUPOSE TO APPLY AS A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF OUR HUMAN NATURE ? YOU KNOW THAT PESKY…”DO UNTO OTHER” STUFF !

Compiled below, in hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve is a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals.

These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies.

The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the United States target civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, use antipersonnel weapons including cluster bombs in densely settled urban areas, use white phosphorous as a weapon, use depleted uranium weapons, employ a new version of napalm found in Mark 77 firebombs, engage in collective punishment of Iraqi civilian populations - including by blocking roads, cutting electricity and water, destroying fuel stations, planting bombs in farm fields, demolishing houses, and plowing down orchards - detain people without charge or legal process without the rights of prisoners of war, imprison children, torture, and murder.

Because each of the people on this list should be nonviolently protested everywhere they go (more on that below), I have organized them by location. Please post updates on where they are as comments ;)

CALIFORNIA

1. John Yoo: Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley, California, with house at 1241 Grizzly Peak Blvd., Berkeley, (but a lawyer with the Pennsylvania bar from which he should be disbarred and would be if enough people demanded it) counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, wrote this memo promoting presidential power to launch aggressive war, and claimed the power to decree that the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming, and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war, and to announce a new definition of torture limiting it to acts causing intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result. Yoo claimed in 2005 that a president has the right to enhance an interrogation by crushing the testicles of someone's child. Yoo has been confronted in his classroom: video, and defended by the Washington Post, and again confronted in the classroom.

Additional collaborators:

2. Robert J. Delahunty, Yoo colleague, should be disbarred in NY

3. Patrick F. Philbin, Yoo colleague, Deputy, should be disbarred in D.C. and MA

4. Jay Bybee: federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, headquartered in San Francisco, California (but Bybee based in Las Vegas), counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by helping Yoo draft the memo linked above. He signed not only torture memos but also a memo purporting to legalize illegal and unconstitutional wars. BYBEE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED. He works, among other places, at the James R. Browning Courthouse, 95 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, - This is a giant marble building in the center of the city represented in Congress by the Speaker of the House.NOTE : I KNOW THIS IS EMBARASSING TO THE HILT FOR A NATION THAT PRIDES ITSELF ON BEING... more

WhiteNoise
added this
3 months ago
|
25 comments

Obama admits US can’t insure all Americans without single payer

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that unless you... more

asherp
added this
4 months ago
|
74 comments

Bernie Sanders introduces Universal Health Care Petition

A PETITION TO CONGRESS Supporting Single-Payer Health Care Whereas: *... more

asherp
added this
5 months ago
|
8 comments

535 people represent you..what are you gonna do about it?

The election is over and we must begin turning our country around now, or the... more

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
6 comments

The Election Special

Chewing up the week's media so we can regurgitate it, half-digested, into your mouth.... more

infoMania
added this
1 year ago
|
32 comments

Nader

Has anybody heard of Nader? He's the one with the credentials. This is some Democracy!

sekt444
added this
1 year ago
|
4 comments

The Real VP Debate wheres Biden /Palin??

All potential VP's were invited These VP Candidates showed up. I suggest listening... more

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
0 comments

The Obama Nuts

video from http://www.youtube.com/user/votenader08 "A hopeful Obama supporter... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
2 comments

McCain and Israel’s Bombing of the U.S.S. Liberty

video from http://www.youtube.com/user/votenader08 http://www.votenader.org/... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
0 comments

Jail Time Not Bail Time!

a Nine part Video of the wall street protests in NYC

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
0 comments

Palin and Biden Scared to Debate 3rd Parties

t's debate week! Ralph Nader will appear tomorrow (Thursday October 30, 2008, 4:30... more

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
2 comments

Obama McCain- scared to Debate- Not Democratic!

It's debate week! Ralph Nader will appear tomorrow (Thursday October 30, 2008,... more

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
7 comments

What Do They Have to Do to Lose Your Vote?

The Trail of Broken Promises

By MATT GONZALEZ

Watching the Democrats in the final weeks of the presidential election has been a lesson in revisionist history. While they lament the terrible crimes perpetrated against the American people by George Bush and vow to keep fighting for our rights, they conveniently gloss over the fact that they have no standing to make such claims. Indeed, the Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, have actually voted with President Bush’s agenda, making them complicit in his acts, not valiant opponents defending our liberties.

PELOSI’S PROMISE TO END THE WAR

Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said that if she became the speaker of the House of Representatives she would end the war in Iraq. Remember that? The Boston Globe noted, "Pelosi vows no ‘blank check’ on Iraq funds.” (1/8/07). In her own words: "If the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new to him, because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions.” Rick Klein of the Globe noted "Pelosi’s comments mark the first suggestion by a Democratic congressional leader that Congress could use its authority over the nation’s finances to hasten an end to the war. Her remarks point toward an aggressive stance on Iraq from Congressional Democrats in their opening days of control of the House and Senate.”

Yet after she became the speaker of the House in Jan 2007, war appropriations actually went up by $50 billion, with no strings attached and no date for the withdrawal of troops. This year, 2008, they’ve gone up by another $25 billion for a two-year total of $350 billion, with no end in sight. So what happened to the promise of "no blank check?”

REID’S FILIBUSTER RULE

Sen. Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, has complained that the Republicans have filibustered (a procedure used by the minority party to delay voting on legislation) more times in the last two years than in the entire history of the United States to explain why he can’t move forward a progressive agenda. First he said it was over 70 times, then adjusted it by saying it was 65 times (Las Vegas Sun 3/6/08); yet still the highest for any two-year period (the previous record was 57 filibusters) (Politico, 3/6/08; Gov.Track.us 4/15/08). But Sen. Reid’s frustration has proven to be a red-herring. Did you know that Reid lets the Republicans filibuster telephonically, meaning that he doesn’t require that they physically present themselves on the floor of the Senate? Why is he making it easy on them? Is this what an opposition party looks like?

REPUBLICAN CLASS ACTION REFORM

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party nominee for president, has a long history of voting against the interest of the American people, and specifically, the working class. Before entering the presidential contest, he supported the Republican Class Action Reform Bill, which made it harder for class-action lawsuits to be brought in the state courts. State courts are exactly where consumer protection lawsuits and recent wage and hour claims have succeeded in improving the lives of workers and helped them obtain better wages and breaks during work hours have succeeded.

Progressive commentators at the time called it a thinly veiled special-interest extravaganza. Journalist David Sirota noted "Opposed by most major civil rights and consumer watchdog groups, this Big Business-backed legislation was sold to the public as a way to stop ‘frivolous’ lawsuits. But everyone in Washington knew the bill’s real objective was to protect corporate abusers.” (The Nation, 6/26/06). So why did Obama vote for it?The Trail of Broken Promises By MATT GONZALEZ Watching the Democrats in the... more

joefac3
added this
1 year ago
|
18 comments

Revolution 08

Coldcut vs TV Sheriff "Revolution '08" Music Video

donkeyfly69
added this
1 year ago
|
12 comments

EnviroNutZ- Nader Wins

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader after a sweeping upset has won the Presidency! Nader a long time consumer advocate and best known for his criticism of corporate power has against all odds and without a fair debate with the two major party candidates, embraced the will of the people, and will now serve as what he quotes as “Citizen as Chief”
A befuddled Barack Obama when asked “What Happened?” responded” Well,… I think in the end the peoples saw right through me…I guess I underestimated him?
Senator McCain when asked about the Nader Victory resonded.” Why he’s a terrorist! I can’t believe it? Did you Know he’s Lebonese? We’ve sold our souls to al Queda….Gov Palin Chimed in with an “Yah he, like he’s an “Elite Terrorist” he’s from Connecticut is he not?” ”he’s not married he’s probably GAY!” OH Now the whole country will turn Gay” ”Glad I’m up in Alaska” ‘wink’**
Nader promises and immediate withdraw of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan followed by enormous aid to the region and international round table to discuss restoring the region. A plan to cut the wasteful military budget will then disentangle the Military industrial Complex from its politically engineered and perpetual congressional approval. Instead he plans to use the money for schools and his health plan. In his first 100 Days he will deliver Single payer Health Care, with private doctors and choice.
He plans to Bring jobs back home to the USA by invigorating green technologies and rebuilding America’s infrastructure. By instituting a Carbon Pollution tax, these new technologies may take root with subsidies to the industry and ween our dependence on foreign oil.
Nader vows to continue his plan to run the crooks out of Washington and the Wall Street Banksters with an aggressive crackdown on corporate crime. Including the High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Bush administration adn bring immediate charges of impeachment to the “arrogant dynasty of King George the 4th”
By leveraging a Wall street Speculation tax of just 1/10th of 1% Nader spells out how the 700 Billion Bailout plan could have been avoided, and vows to hold deliberations in congress as to how to proceed.
Nader’s VP Matt Gonzalez will be heading up plans to reform Ballot access obstructionism and end the two party dominated corporate Duopoly. They promise to end the corporate controlled debates that Nader himself has battled for over 16 years. “No more debates brought to you by Anheuser Busch or Conventions by AT&T, its time to get the corporate paymasters out of POLITICS!”
Nader/Gonzalez will create a New Cabinet position for the Department of Peace. Cabinet Secretary Michael Franti of San Francisco has been tapped for the position as “Minister of Peace” for his insightful motto of “you can Bomb the World to Pieces but you can’t Bomb it into Peace”
Finally, Nader Gonzalez will defy corporate personhood and vow to forge forward a new government “By the People and For The People”
When asked what the first thing he was going to do as president Nader responded” I’m gonna put the Solar panels back on the White House that Carter had put on and Reagan took off…… then I’m probably gonna roll up my sleeves and get to work!”

** This reporter told her to STFU! you dimwitted fool!Consumer advocate Ralph Nader after a sweeping upset has won the Presidency! Nader a... more