RE: Review of American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson

Posted by brice on 10.25.09 @ 12:48 PM

Ferguson does an excellent job hosting The Late, Late Show. He somehow manages be make his rather lenghty monologues pretty funny every night. CBS should rerun his strongest two shows from the week on Saturday and Sunday at 10 or 11pm - a lot of people who don't stay up past midnight during the week are missing a good show. Many of the cable networks repeat shows (ex: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia re-airs on Sundays at midnight; Mad Men does an 11pm encore right after it airs at 10pm on Sundays).

RE: Seydi Burciaga is more than a news story

Posted by brice on 10.02.09 @ 09:51 PM

No one should be surprised at the media’s lack of conscience. This lot has been lying, suppressing, omitting, and just damn not reporting relevant news direly needed to inform the public about the true 411 on the who/what/where/why of things for a long time. Instead we get sensationalism, fluff, and corporate/govt propaganda. It’s cheap and easy to produce – the lazy, co-opted man’s journalism.

“We have thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan dying to protect our freedom . . .”

Don’t even go there, Dr. Burton. You appear to be enough of a bullshit detector to know that our soldiers’ mission in the Middle East doesn’t have a damn thing to do with protecting our “freedom.” The “fight for freedom and democracy” is the company lie/line our govt uses to get over on its ignorant citizens. Our fighting men and women are over there: 1) to enrich defense contractors’ coffers; 2) to pave the way for corporate interests to control oil and whatever other resources they want; and 3) because Israel wants to keep the chaos going in the hopes of obliterating (with much US help) most of its neighbors and taking over their lands (the big I don’t play well with others).

Truth is, our freedom – especially the freedom to just go about one’s daily life - is imperiled by the govt’s foreign policy that is designed to conquer, subjugate, and create/maintain chaos for purposes that have little to do with bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed masses in other lands. Said policy creates resentment of the US and provides a fertile breeding ground for terrorist recruitment.

Other freedoms – such as freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, habeus corpus, protection from warrantless wiretaps/surveillance – are being imperiled not by terrorists but by our own govt. Senator Bacchus has citizens arrested for daring to question his committee’s refusal to consider single payer; protestors at the G20 and political conventions are kept as far as possible from event locales and under more police/National Guard surveillance and firepower than one can imagine. The govt is colluding with telecoms to get info about people’s communications sans warrant. The list of types of folks who get branded as terrorists gets longer. The no-fly list contains Nobel Peace prize winners. These assaults on freedoms continue regardless of who inhabits the White House.

The media's lack of tact with regard to human tragedy provides perfect cover/diversion from what they should be telling us. With 24/7 media and more channels to fill, expect more of the same crass and trash.

RE: Health care hooligans

Posted by brice on 08.15.09 @ 12:17 AM

Obama's healthcare reforms (under the watchful eye of Big Pharma and the insurance industry) do nothing to address the structural failures of private insurance - costs and access. Mandates to force the uninsured into private plans focus on keeping costs low with high-fee, high-deductible plans or bare-bones coverage plans. Either way, the problems of being under-insured or inability to afford paying for care before the deductible kicks in. Further, forcing one to buy when one has no money to do so leaves one still w/o access to quality care when needed. The administration and its Congressional allies tout "affordability credits" to help offset cost of premiums. Where does this money come from? As with the Wall Street bailout, taxpayer dollars would go toward further fattening of insurance industry coffers - and again as with Wall St bailout - no guarantee of citizens getting money's worth, i.e., quality healthcare that doesn't bankrupt.

The public option Obama and Capitol Hill tout is a bureaucratic minefield that won't guarantee coverage for every citizen. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that Obama's plan would reduce the number of uninsured only by a net 16 million people. The CBO also finds that 36 million would remain uninsured in 2017. Yet, the plan would cost at least 1 trillion over ten years. The CBO further calculates that only one out of four uninsured would be helped by Obama's public option, with the rest paying higher taxes but remaining uninsured.

This whole messopotamia could be solved yesterday if Obama and the useless Democratic Congressional majority would support John Conyers HR 676 "Medicare for All" bill. The bill would have all citizens covered under Medicare - a single payer plan that has proven over the years to be cost effective and able to provide quality care. You go to whatever doctor or hospital you prefer and receive the treatment needed. The only change is instead of the doctor or hospital dealing with a zillion insurance companies there would be only one - Medicare. Medicare for All would be funded through combining budgets or existing programs with a payroll tax on employers and workers and tax on wealth.

With a few tweaks to the current program, Medicare for All could be up and running within 12 months or less. A tax on employers and workers to cover Medicare would be drastically lower than the costs of healthcare premiums are for them now. This eliminates the whine of employers who blame high healthcare costs for impeding investment and causing offshoring. If needed, co-pays could be charged based on a person's income, with the amount ranging from 5 to 20 percent or nothing for those 60+, the disabled, children, and people below the poverty line. Tax dollars would be going to provide quality healthcare to taxpayers.

Despite the many pros and few cons of HR 676, info about this bill and the single payer option in general is being suppressed from all sides - from Obama (who admitted this was the best way to cover everyone but is too chickenshit to stand his ground and support it - no different from his cave ins on everything else) to Democrats (see Max Baccus having citizens including doctors arrested for asking why single payer is being left out of discussion - so much for freedom of speech and democracy in this here land) to Republicans (no surprises here) to the always co-opted and compliant mainstream media stenos. Despite the media blackout, polls show citizens favor a single payer option like HR 676 when they are provided with accurate info about it.

Obama and his fellow politicos lament that loss of insurance jobs if Medicare for All was enacted. How considerate. No one in Washington has given a rat's ass to the millions of jobs in manufacturing and IT that have been lost due to offshoring. Further, industries have been replaced before - pony express, horse and buggy. If Washington just can't bear for the health insurance industry to bite the dust, these insurers can offer plans for long-term care, accidental death, short-term disability, and home care.

The tea baggers, right wingers, or whatever they're being labeled, may have ulterior motives for their protests on healthcare reform but they have the right to assemble and to protest. The sad part of all this is the silence on the Left. They should be as vociferous and rabid as the right wingers. Obama's plan, to quote John Conyers, is a piece of crap and they know this. The Left has been castrated and lobotomized it seems by Obamamania and refuse - with few exceptions - to stand up to an administration that has kicked sand in their faces at every turn. This includes the gang at Creative Loafing who tread lightly on Obama's backsliding and continuation of Bush's agenda. HR 676 has been around for a few years but the Left has been as feckless as the Congressfolk it keeps electing in refusing to drum up grassroots support to pressure Congress - and now its point man in the Oval Office to pass the bill.

Instead of pressuring Obama to support single payer instead of the red tape nightmare/insurance industry enrichment program that is his reform plan, all we hear from lefties are laments about the bigoted tea baggers and right wingers' onslaught against Obama. Who loses? John and Jane Q. Public who as usual remain disinformed and uninformed about the facts on an important issue.

RE: Is Dr. Regina Benjamin too fat to be surgeon general?

Posted by brice on 08.02.09 @ 02:24 PM

Too many calories and not enough excercise are the causes of most weight problems but not all. Many people, especially the severely obese, sometimes suffer from physical ailments such as thyroid problems that can throw one's metabolism out of whack. Go too long without treating this (or even knowing you have it), along with a bad diet and related health ailments - and your weight may go off the charts.

There is also a muscle condition I can't recall offhand that causes problems including weight gain to the point where some are confined mostly to a wheelchair for mobility. Some medications also cause weight gain as well.

Would a less portly Surgeon General be a better spokesman for the nation's health? Yes. But her qualifications and commitment to promoting healthy living is more important. Perhaps Benjamin's new higher profile will lead to her setting an example and dropping some pounds.

A slim Surgeon General is no guarantee of someone who will promote healthy choices, especially if said svelte person fails to speak out against:

- subsides for industries (ex:corn) that contribute to highly processed, high fructose corn syrup laden foods that are cheap but deadly as opposed to subsidies to make fresh produce and hormone free food less expensive;

-confined feeding operations that wreak havoc on air and water quality, and pump animals with antibiotics and hormones that affect human bodies. These hormones and genetically modified foods will be this generation's tobacco. Just as it was revealed that tobacco companies knew long ago the harmful effects of smoking, we will learn years later that food companies were aware of the dangers of injecting hormones into livestock destined for people's meal times. We've already seen the problems of overuse of antibiotics in livestock which has caused some bacteria to become resistant to antibiotic treatment.

As for commenter "n" who remarked about Obama's hiring of minorities, you are beyond off base. Good Biracial Negro Obama has tripped over his wingtips avoiding all things black since he came on the scene. His advisers and cabinet selections are overwhelming white. What is more troubling is his hires are the same warmongers, labor haters, Wall Street water carriers, neoliberals, and free trade cheerleaders who've been fucking over average Joe and Jane citizens for years.

Yeah, Sotomayor is Latina. Big deal, she blends in nicely with the whites on his staff. Again, what is troubling is she adds racial diversity, not ideological diversity to the Court. The Supreme Court is overloaded with jurists from corporate backgrounds and it shows as Court rulings increasingly favor corporate power over individual rights. Forget about the big As, abortion and affirmative action. The Court spends most of its time on matters relating to corporations, criminal justice, labor, and civil rights issues. However, where are the nominees who've toiled mainly in the public defenders' office, legal aid, personal injury, civil, labor, or human rights? The last nominee with such background was Thurgood Marshall. This is not a black or white issue, it's a average citizen working stiff issue. People's rights are being overridden in favor of corporate whims and wantoness - in the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of govt.

RE: Who's scarier: Gitmo guys or insane lawmakers?

Posted by brice on 05.28.09 @ 08:31 PM

Good article Mr. Grooms but I also await a column on the insane lawmaker in the Oval Office.

Obama is quietly (quietly, thanks to the media's usual blackout of all things relevant style of "journalism") continuing many of BushCo’s questionable and downright unconstitutional policies with regards to the “War on Terror.”

The Obama Justice Dept in a court filing argued that the president has authority to detain terror suspects w/o criminal charge and provided broad definition of who could be held - quite similar to BushCo assertions. Obama says detainees won't be tortured. But isn't holding someone indefinitely without due process torture-like???

A 2009 Wash Post report quoted an administration insider saying CIA will have more leeway than Army Field Manual allows in order to take into account difference between battlefield interrogations and those aimed at extracting info about terrorist activities. Just how much "leeway" are we talking about here? Intelligence Director Dennis Blair testifying at his confirmation hearing replied to a question and stated that "there are certain interrogation techniques that will have to remain secrets so America's adversaries would not be able to train on how to resist them"... Oooh - sounds mighty Cheney-like to me. CIA Director Leon Panetta says agency employees who took part in harsh interrogations of terror suspects won't be punished. So far, we've heard talk of "possibly" sanctioning or disbarring lawyers who provided legal cover for authorization of torture. What's with the selective prosecution of just the lawyers who wrote the legalese and not the people responsible for authorizing torture and those who carried out the torture?

A NYT article stated extraordinary renditions will continue under Obama. "In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently," says the NYT, "Obama nominees endorsed continuing the CIA's program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects w/o trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone." Recently, Obama resumed military tribunals to prosecute Gitmo detainees. Prior to BushCo, terror suspects were tried in open court with the right to counsel and jury verdicts.

I know your guy won Mr. G, but it’s time for the left to stop ignoring the wayward ways of the Democrats - including everyone's favorite Commander-in-Chief. Cheerleading for “your side,” with a bit of tepid criticism thrown in, is not helping we the people overcome the problems wrought by a two-party duopoly that caters exclusively to the rich, powerful, and war profiteers these days. If media don’t perform their job of reporting all the facts and questioning/challenging those that seek to control and rule, we will never experience the “changes” required for the betterment of citizens here and abroad.

Who’s scarier? Bush or Obama? Looks like Obama. He is getting away with continuing a crapload of unwise polices that Bush would have been rightly called out on and slammed. Why? Fear of being labeled racist for criticizing a biracial black president? Still infatuated with the myth of Obama fulfilling MLK’s legacy? If you’ve half a brain you know that’s a goddamn lie. Read MLK’s speeches and writings and you’ll find Obama is shitting on everything for which King fought and was murdered.

The Left better start speaking up and getting into fight mode. You guys allow the Right to frame the conversation with hysteria and lies which provides further cover/distraction for ObamaCo to keep up its wayward ways. I don’t care about all that hope and change campaign bullshit, the Left knows (and knew long ago) full well Obama is another DLC puppet who does the bidding of corporate America. His cabinet full of warmongers, labor haters, and ex-corporate players (many of whom were instrumental in the current financial mess) and campaign coffers full of Wall Street and corporate cash should be plenty to convince anyone still drunk on the Obama kool-aid . If the Left or some damn body doesn’t start to hold Obama and the feckless Demowits accountable soon, you will awake 4 years from now to find the nation and world worse off than the shithole state that we’re in now.