Michael Moore is back: Capitalism-A Love Story

He is my favorite director. His film SiCKO was one of the best films ever made and truly helped inspire a desire for change for our con game of a healthcare system. I really liked F 9/11--he showed the world what was wrong with W long before everyone else figured it out tragically. I did not care for Bowling for Columbine, although he made some very good points in the film.

My point is that his films get better and better. One note of corretion: our system is not Capitalism. It's Capitalism for me and you, it's Socialism for the Big Banks, Auto Company execs, and everyone else who is "too big to fail".

I am expecting a lot from this one:

New Viral Video on Health Care

Bumper Sticker Slogan SMACKDOWNS of Healthcare Reform Opponents!

April 13, 2010: WE DID IT!!! Healthcare Reform (well, insurance reform) was passed this year.

The following can be made into bumper stickers, T-shirts, signs for rallies or for your car or whatever. I want healthcare reform, not copyright credit.

Use any of the slogans here and feel free to make them into items at places like makestickers.com or cafepress or www.bumperactive.com.

Here are the top 10:

1. My Other Car is a Health Insurance Payment
2. My Car Has Better Insurance Than I Do
3. My Death Panel is an HMO
4. Underinsured Baby on Board
5. Hate Socialism? Repeal Medicare!!
6. Sanctity of Life should not end at Birth! Support Healthcare Reform!
7. WWJD: Who Would Jesus Deny? (Healthcare Reform Now!)
8. My single prayer is single payer
9. The Public GOPtion: Don't Get Sick
10. GOP: Rest Uninsured America

Here are the rest. By the way, feel free to contribute your own in the Comments section!!

11. Your Health Care Comes Off your Insurance Company’s Bottom Line
12. It’s OK..Congress Has GREAT Insurance
13. I’d Rather Have a Public Option Than Be Dead Right
14. GOP: We won't let your health come between your insurer & his profits!
15. Democrat: A Republican with a Pre-existing Condition

16. Before Jesus healed the leper...did He check his insurance coverage?
17. Public Option: Putting People Before Profit
18. Democrat: A Republican Who Lost His Health Insurance
19. What's Wrong With Expanding Medicare for Those UNDER 65?
20.
ONLY Industrialized Nation without Universal Healthcare? USA
Spends More Than ANY other Nation on Healthcare? USA
WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!
21. We Can't Fix the Economy Until We Fix Health Care!
22. Healthcare Reform...Your Life Depends On It!
23. Jesus didn’t ask for a co-pay
24. All I Wanted Was Real Health Care Reform, and All I Got Was This Lousy Bumper Sticker
25. GOP: Cancer Happens!
26. Coming to a Hospital Near You: Attack of the Wingnuts Socialized Health Scare
27. Put health back in healthcare
28. Life is a pre-existing condition
29. What value does the insurance company add?
30. Doctors prescribe healthcare, insurance companies proscribe healthcare.

31. USA: Third World Country. No Universal Healthcare.
32. Health Insurance Profits Up 400%
33. Kill Healthcare! 30,000 Lobbyists Can’t Be Wrong!
34. Universal Health Care Is a Family Value
35. GOP: Defending Your Right to Higher Dedutibles
36. America’s Healthcare Is Like Shopping for an Ambulance
37. Government run military = #1 Private Health Care = #37
38. Support the Health Care Bill - Or We'll Focus on Passing Strict Gun Control"
39. "Pass Healthcare - Or the Terrorists Win"
40. Public option not public optional.
41.
POTUS+60 Senators+80seat House majority
No public option in health care means there is NO PUBLIC OPTION IN DEMOCRACY!
42. 1.4 Million Bucks A Day - Keeps Healthcare Away
43. "Letting Americans Die For Profit?"
44. "For Profit Healthcare Makes Me Sick"
45. Health Insurance Premiums: its where 7 of your last 10 raises went

46. Take My High Premiums From My Cold, Dead Hands
47. Have You Teabagged For Your Insurance Agent Today
48. You Die, They Profit, and GOP gets Paid. Reform Healthcare Now!
49. One Nation, Underinsured.
50. Republican Healthcare Reform: Be Rich or Die
51. My Boss Bussed Me to the Town Hall, and I Didn't Even Get on You Tube
52. Health care should be a right...not a privilege
53. Single Payer Is Pro-Life
54. Guns Don't Kill People. Spreadsheets Do. Support Healthcare Reform.
55. Take My High Premiums from my Cold Dead Hands.
56. Healthcare is for people, not for profit!
57. When you get healthcare, there is an insurance executive who gets a smaller bonus.
58. There's always the Emergency Room... and Bankruptcy
59. Healthcare from Womb to Tomb!
60. Private health insurance isn't the solution, it's the problem

61. Teacher says every time a claim is denied an adjuster gets his wings
62. Back Off! I have swine flu and can't get meds!
63. Insurance is the problem, not the solution.
64. Insurance + Illness = Bankruptcy: What's wrong with this picture? FIX HEALTHCARE NOW!!
65. There is something that can make you better, but I can't afford it

The Four Systems of Healthcare

www.electoral-vote.com
discusses the four ways countries can run their health systems. We are primarily #4, but have elements of each:

1. Nationalized medicine (UK)
Government runs hospitals and pays doctors. No one in Congress is proposing this, although we have this for our veterans. The VA runs their own hospitals and pays their own doctors, and no one screams socialism.

2. National health insurance (Canada)
The doctors and hospitals are private, but the government foots the bill. U.S. again has this...in the form of Medicare.


3. Regulated fee-for-service medicine (MA)
Hospitals and doctors are private, and insurance is private. What the government does is set strict ground rules, such as insurance must cover to a basic standard, everyone gets the same price regardless of medical history, etc. Also, companies don't have to offer health care: the competition is between insurance companies. Mitt Romney and the Massachusettes legislature set something like this up for their citizens.

4. Unregulated fee-for-service medicine (US)
Everything is private, and the government doesn't regulate anything. Free-for-all. The majority of our nation operates like this. If someone has a pre-existing condition, no job, low-wage job, whatever...they just don't get insurance. The community pays for their health care with the inevitable trips to the emergency room. Their is no gaurantee of anything but apparently higher premiums.

The author of this article, which attacks both our current system and all the bills currently floating in Congress, has an unorthodox solution. Real reform, it is argued, is bypassing the insurance industry alltogether. I disagree, but the article raises some very strong points many have not considered.

Oppose Govt.-Run Healthcare? Repeal Medicare Now!

I have yet to hear a public official say that he or she is opposed to single-payer, government-run, totally government-controlled healthcare AND that we should get rid of Medicare. Because that is EXACTLY what Medicare is. As long as we are at it, we need to get rid of Social Security, because that is a socialist-style program.

PLEASE don't tell me you oppose government-run, socialist-style programs without first demanding we get rid of Medicare and Social Security. THEN you will have credibility talking about nixing healthcare reform for 46 million people without insurance.

But I have yet to hear any Republican Representative stand up and say that...

Best Comment on Whole Foods Forum

This was posted on DKos by Suburban Blue:

Wingnut Comment:

You're an ignoramus. Look at the facts. Anything the government has involved itself in haS becomes less efficient and more expensive. That's not partisan it's reality. The CBO has twice now substantiated that this trend will only continue if the government gets involved. We need to address the cost of health care but the gov. is not the solution.
Posted by Stump

A wonderful person by the name of MBShopper came back with this whopper:

Once again, for the benefit of the government-can't-get-anything-right flock:

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and tTechnology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.


After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.


The only reason government doesn't work is because conservative Republican administrations defunded and/or patronage staffed them with people with ties to special business interests: to wit the last FDA, Dept of Interior and Agriculture under Bush. No one seems to have a problem with pumping over $500Bil to the Defense Department which last I hear is a socialized entity.

Glenn Beck Rants About How Awful Our Health Care Is

The hypocrisy is so blatant...once again it's up to Jon Stewart to point this out. The past few days Glenn has been screaming how "awesome" our health care is...forgetting that he was equally venemous one year ago about our country having the worst health care in the world...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

This is why there are so few liberal pundits. We get called out on this by our own. A conservative can say something one day and change his position to suit his needs the next... and silence....

Boycott Whole Foods

There was never a shortage of reasons to dislike Whole Foods. There’s already a list here detailing the poor working conditions, shutting out local farms for corporate farms, union-busting, criminal activity, etc.

I only disliked them because I thought it was stupid to pay 10 bucks for a can of beans.

But CEO Bill Mackey is a whole new kind of stupid. He is a right-wing libertarian with strong conservative views who decided to attack his primary clientele...progressives. Even before he launched his tirade yesterday in the WSJ, the dumbass was part of Jon Stossel's hit job on Healthcare Reform two years ago, where he compared people getting chemotherapy to buying wine or steak in his stores.

First off, reaching out to conservatives is probably not the brightest marketing move. You see, conservatives don’t typically hang out at Whole Foods or organic tea shops. They have contempt for the whole hippie, “tree-hugger” meme. Reaching out to them is as pointless as trying to argue the points of social liberalism during the intermission at a tractor-pull.

The majority of WFI’s base are vegetarians and progressive liberals with cash to burn. They are the odd combo of “hippie-yuppies” who make it a point to shop at your store because they believe it is the right thing to do, no matter how much cheaper they can get the food elsewhere and no matter how far away it is.

Well, after today, anyone who still shops there are as stupid as the CEO. They are contributing money to defeat not just a progressive cause but a solution that will stave off a truly huge American crisis. A crisis that will impact most of us, not the super-wealthy like Bob Mackey.

But what about my organic food?

DarkSyde gave a link to locate your nearest organic store: www.organicstorelocator.com

Here’s some other ideas: shop at your local health food co-op, shop at your local farmer’s market, or shop at a competitor like Trader Joe’s—or or even the organic section of your local grocer.

For the love of God, don't shop at Whole Foods. It's inconvenient, it's outrageously expensive, it's crooked, and you would be supporting a company that is dedicated to stop healthcare reform.

Now about the article:
Plenty of conservative rhetoric with absolutely NOTHING to address the out of control healthcare costs which are guaranteed to double by the next decade, which are already bankrupting employers, governments, and forcing millions of Americans to forego insurance.


He addressed none of that. Here's his "ideas":
Enact Tort Reform…
Really? We’ve done that genius under Bush. Did your rates go down? NOPE. The “savings” were never passed on.

Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost.
20% of each dollar goes to profit, along with 30 cents for their inefficient buracrucay. Transparent enough for ya?

Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).
What obstacles? If you are charged twice as much as the treatment costs, how does HAS help anyway?

Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.
Meaning any state that requires a minimum standard of coverage is screwed.

Revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance
Who would get that, idiot. THE GOVERNMENT? The insurance companies?

We are told by INSURANCE bureaucrats that have an eye only on the bottom line what health care treatments people are eligible for.

Then there’s this slam against nations that provide a minimum level of care to all their citizens (quick note—that’s ALL industrialized countries in the world EXCEPT US!!):
Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments

First of all, we are talking about an OPTION for millions of Americans who can’t afford coverage. You want to keep private, the bill specifically provides for you to do that.

Second, America spends about 15% of its GDP on health care. Most other industrialized countries (all of whom have some form of universal care) spend about 11-12%. According to the WHO, Canada spends a bit over 9% -- and most of the problems within their system come out of the fact that it's chronically underfunded compared to the international average. Our system sucks--Any system that has people spending more and getting less is, by definition, not efficient.

But Mackey manages to get two myths in that short statement:

Myth 1: Rationed care: Don't look now: but America does ration care. And it does it in the most capricious, draconian, and often dishonest way possible. Mostly, the US system rations care by simply eliminating large numbers of people from the system due to an inability to pay. Furthermore, it can lead to financial ruin even if you HAVE health insurance.

Myth 2 Long lines: This line is often thrown out about Canadians. We won’t have anything like the Canadian system…however, this line is a LIE. People I know in Canada would NEVER trade their system for ours. NOT one of them has ever been turned away for needed medical attention or waited in long lines.

Don't spend your hard-earned cash in Whole Foods...spend it at a true organic store that won't fight healthcare reform.

Central Florida Healthcare Townhalls

WE NEED HEALTHCARE REFORM NOW!!

The following is the list of local representatives and townhalls on Healthcare this month. If you support reform, attend. If you have genuine concerns and questions, attend. If you want to just scream at the top of your lungs that Obama is trying to euthanize you, please stay home, watch Glenn Beck, and eat soap.

Democrats:
Sen. Bill Nelson, Orlando-No

Rep. Corrine Brown, Jacksonville-No

Rep. Alan Grayson, Orlando-Yes. Plans town-hall meetings in Winter Garden, south Orange County and Ocala before the end of August but hasn't set dates.

Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, New Smyrna Beach-Yes. Will hold a telephone town-hall meeting before the end of August but hasn't set a date. Constituents will receive an automated phone call asking if they'd like to participate. To make sure your number is on Kosmas' list, call 1-877-956-7627.


Republicans:
Sen. Mel Martinez, Orlando-No

Rep. John Mica, Winter Park-Yes. Will hold a telephone town-hall meeting Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. Constituents will receive an automated phone call asking whether they'd like to participate. To make sure your number is on Mica's list, call his office at 407-657-8080.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Brooksville-Yes. Plans two town-hall meetings Aug. 24, but details haven't been finalized.

Rep. Bill Posey, Rockledge-Maybe. Plans a town-hall meeting before the end of August but hasn't set a date.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, Ocala-No.

Rep. Adam Putnam, Bartow-No.

Nicest Tribute Given to Obama...By Bill O'Reilly (Seriously)

Bill O'Reilly wrote a nice piece in today's PARADE magazine of what Barack Obama can teach America's youth. When he tried to corner Obama early last year and get him to come on his program, he told Obama that he "loved" him... but I thought he was just sucking up so Obama would agree to go on the Factor. (Which he did).

But the love was apparently genuine. Even if O'Reilly and O'bama are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, even Bill has to admit that Obama is one hell of an American story. Take a minute and see what he wrote for today's children and what they can learn from number 44...

What Obama Can Teach America's Kids by Bill O'Reilly

U Caught ME! My Kenyan Birth Certificate.

Very well, I have to admit. The birth certificate I have proving I was born in South Seminole was faked. I wasn't born in Seminole County, I was born in ORANGE County... KENYA.

It's all over the internet.. And these things can't be faked. It's got signatures and everything. Game over...

How To Counter Arguments on HealthCare Reform

Any talk of controlling the deficit or fixing the economy without addressing the current healthcare crisis is futile. Our critics are arguing to keep a broken system, which is not just unsustainable, but is becoming catastrophic. Our costs are practically guaranteed to double over the next decade, which will lead to bankrupt employers and state governments.

This means millions more Americans will go uninsured—which is why premiums go up each year. You are covering the cost of those who can't afford to go to the doctor and end up having to go to the emergency room instead.

Those lucky enough to have insurance will be more vulnerable than ever to arbitrary denials of coverage.

Even right now, no one can argue that the care and cost are uneven, and while we spend more than any other nation on earth on healthcare, we are the only industrialized nation not to provide at least a minimum standard to all our citizens. With all the amount of money we are spending, we rank only 37th in the world for level of care, behind nations such as Cyprus or Columbia.

Bottom line is that we need to fix the problem. We needed to do this decades ago, but we can’t push this off anymore.

As expected, people with agendas to who just want our president to fail, or who profit from this broken system, are feeding outrageous talking points to the wingnut masses to carry out who are either too stupid or too lazy to realize that “Victory” for them means catastrophe for everyone. It's pointless to argue with the wingnut's, but several people who get bombarded with these falsehoods should get them corrected.

Morons, like those who attended the Tampa event in Florida, would not stop screaming that the reform will lead to healthcare for illegals or euthanasia of seniors (our own Ginny-Brown Waite, folks, said that. Don’t blame her, she was paid quite a bit too—see previous post). Even Palin today said they would kill her son. Idiots.

For these rantings, kindly direct them to this website, which puts the kibosh on the stupidity.

However, this category of people is called screaming stupid. These are people who make no attempt to read what the draft actually says unless, as Balam says, it fits their preconceived notions on Obama, the DNP, or evil “librals”.

They will always ignore the explanations given to them not only by professionals trained in interpreting legislation, but also by the people who actually wrote the legislation at issue, preferring instead to buy the interpretation of hyper-partisan nonprofessionals like Sarah, Rush, or glenn. Don’t waste your time.

For those who aren’t screaming stupid, they will argue point by point what is contained in the all-powerful HR 3200. One intelligent dissenter in the previous post contends to have “studied it carefully”--I'll take him at his word that he read all 1,018 pages. Normally, however, they will argue points given to them by their right-wing masters, such as this beauty that has circulated on the internet by the Liberty Counsel. (PAGE 2, Paragraph 3, Stroke 5, says we are all gonna die!!!)

Couple of things,

First, read the bill yourself: here

Second, the bill is a draft. No where near completion.

Third, according to Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan foundation that studies health care reform, the claims are “flat-out, blatant lies. It's unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false."

If you get this email or one like it, guide the good fellow to someone who has actually read the bill and talked with the bill’s authors. These folks went through each claim made by the liberty counsel point by point:


Politifact.com

Linda Bergthold

The president also does a good job of addressing the lunacy and the motivations behind them:




People who care about the truth will appreciate it.

Those who still disagree and want a rationale debate, please, by all means, give it to them.

But those who are angry with you and scream that this is the first step of forced abortions under a liberal Hitler, then you need to deal with them at their level. Have them play with THIS for awhile.

By the Numbers: What the Healthcare Industry Paid for Each Congressman

The Center for Responsive Politics released a list of what each obstructing Congressman was paid by the Healthcare sector. It is spending a total of 1,400,000 PER DAY to destroy the Public Option--the only real chance of reform.

Primarily Republicans are the takers, of course, but several Democrats as well. The Dem leading the charge against it is Max Baucus, who gets millions from them himself. Most Congressmen are bought for under 500,000. This is money the healthcare sector takes from patients to fund the "con game" of our sleazy health care system alive so a select few can get well while another select few can make an obscene amount of money.

The list is as shocking as the statements these so-called representatives make. Hey Thune, if you hate the government paying for health care so much, are you going to drop your generous "socialized medicine" package the taxpayers give you Senators?

Keith Olbermann brought his A game for this one....everyone should watch: