Alan Grayson still not apologizing

Grayson is a fresh voice I enjoy hearing. I especially agree with Grayson's point that we need to do something about 120 needless deaths every day. If 120 people died in a plane crash each day for a week, we'd take action and revamp the aviation system. So why do we allow 120 people die each day due to lack of health insurance? I'm not suggesting that I'm happy with the proposals that I've heard so far. I don't want a system that shovels lots of tax dollars to for-profit health insurance companies to insure a relatively small number of new people. And I'm frustrated that we aren't talking clearly in terms of how much reform would cost, who would pay it and how much coverage it would provide. We can't afford heart transplants for everyone, right? So what level of health coverage should we guarantee and how are we going to pay for it? In plain English, please. Without all of the backroom deals. And not passed 12 hours after the public release of a 2,000 page bill loaded with special favors. Let's talk out in the open like adults. Or is that not possible anymore?

Continue ReadingAlan Grayson still not apologizing

I’m behaving like someone who isn’t getting an answer to his question

This is a wild ride, but a lot was put onto the table. Even Dylan Ratigan's phrase "corporate communism. Look what happens when you put Dylan Ratigan, Betsy McCaughey and Anthony Weiner into the same room:

Continue ReadingI’m behaving like someone who isn’t getting an answer to his question

Before you eat another hamburger

The NYT publishes an in-depth article about the hamburger meat industry and what can go wrong, "The Burger That Shattered Her Life." Here's an excerpt:

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007. “I ask myself every day, ‘Why me?’ and ‘Why from a hamburger?’ ” Ms. Smith said. In the simplest terms, she ran out of luck in a food-safety game of chance whose rules and risks are not widely known.

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Michael Moore: The current proposals can’t fix health care

Michael Moore gives 13 reasons why the current proposals don't get to the heart of the problem. His conclusion:

We may be slow learners, but the rest of the industrial world has figured it out: Universal, single-payer or national health care systems. That's the reason why all those other countries cover everyone, have better patient outcomes, cause no one to declare bankruptcy or lose their homes because of medical bills, and spend less than half per capita on health care than we do. We could do it too, by reducing the starting age for Medicare from 65 to 0. There's still time to act.

Continue ReadingMichael Moore: The current proposals can’t fix health care