When someone talks about pushing you off a cliff, it’s just human nature to be curious about them. Who are these people, you wonder, and why would they want to do such a thing?
That’s what I was thinking when corporate whistleblower Wendell Potter revealed that, when “Sicko” was being released in 2007, the health insurance industry’s PR firm, APCO Worldwide, discussed their Plan B: “Pushing Michael Moore off a cliff.”
But after looking into it, it turns out it’s nothing personal! APCO wants to push everyone off a cliff.
APCO was hatched in 1984 as a subsidiary of the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter — best known for its years of representing the giant tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris. APCO set up fake “grassroots” organizations around the country to do the bidding of Big Tobacco. All of a sudden, “normal, everyday, in-no-way-employed-by-Philip Morris Americans” were popping up everywhere. And it turned out they were outraged — outraged! — by exactly the things APCO’s clients hated (such as, the government telling tobacco companies what to do). In particular, they were “furious” that regular people had the right to sue big corporations…you know, like Philip Morris.
The inmates took over the political asylum on Tuesday as a flood of bitter tea spilled all over the American landscape like a bloodbath, leaving the poor and the foundering middle class even more at the mercy of the rich and powerful, including corporations that now dominate life in the United States in a way no one has seen since the Robber Barons at the height of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century.
Incomplete returns showed the Republican Party picking up at least 60 House seats, far more then they needed to take over a majority in Congress where they are now in a position to control the national political calendar, the Congressional agenda and all the committees where government policy is largely set in the U.S.
“A Republican takeover of the House ushers in a new era of divided government after two years in which Obama and fellow Democrats pushed through an economic stimulus bill, a landmark health care measure and legislation to rein in Wall Street after the near collapse of the economy in 2008,” according to the staunchly mainstream Associated Press.
Yet not all the tea party insurgents won, according to the AP and other news outlets.
While many voters cast their ballots for representatives who likely hold a strong position either for or against the health care legislation signed into law in March, Gallup finds more than one in six American adults remain uninsured, unchanged from prior months this year, but still significantly more than in 2008, when Gallup and Healthways began tracking it, according to the latest survey on the subject.
The percentage of uninsured Americans shot up to 15.8 percent in November 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis, and entered into the 16 percent range in early 2009.
Gallup asks Americans about their healthcare coverage daily as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The monthly data for October are based on interviews with more than 30,000 Americans.
With six days to go until what may prove to be a disastrous election for the American people and those in my home state of Alabama, the public opinion numbers are not moving anywhere but to the right, according to poll after poll.
Gerald Johnston, director of the Capital Survey Research Center in Montgomery, said in a telephone interview that the ethics scandal brewing about Tuscaloosa Republican dermatologist Robert Bentley — now all over the television news and the Web — is not having an effect on public opinion.
When asked if the scandal was convincing any potential voters in Alabama to vote for the Democrat, Ron Sparks, instead of Bentley, Johnston said, “No. There’s no movement at all.”
His numbers confirm story after story we’ve published on the news page over the past few months.
Look, I know some people, especially in the mainstream media business, and average Americans who live in the country, are perplexed at why polls show more and more people are turning to Jon Daily on the Comedy Channel for news and information as well as entertainment, especially younger folks.
This clip is a good reason why. The House was debating a bill that would provide up to $7.4 billion in health care aid to rescue workers who have faced health problems in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York. The bill ultimately failed to get the needed two-thirds majority, 255-159. You can learn that from the AP story in most newspapers in the U.S.
But only Jon Stewart, and a few of us Web publishers, will get out the pertinent facts about these votes by making fun of members of Congress — who show themselves to be tools of corporate moneyed-interests on a regular basis.
Starting in September, insurance plans will be required to pay the entire cost of recommended, preventive services. That means that, without paying a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance, many Americans will be able to take the preventive steps needed to keep themselves and their families healthy.
To help raise awareness about this important issue, the First Lady and Dr. Biden recorded this video message.
Background
Chronic conditions are impacting America’s men, women and children every day. Nearly one-third of kids are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, and 12 percent of children have not had a doctor’s visit in the past year.
About 210,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will occur among women in the United States during 2010, and an estimated 40,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer this year.
But the good news is that, as devastating as these illnesses can be, many of these conditions are preventable. With expanded access to preventive services, individuals can get the information they need to make the health decisions that are right for them. Preventing illness before it starts is key to keeping America healthy but it is also an important step in reducing health care costs.
Each year chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for 7 of 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending.
State Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr. announced Sunday he’s sponsoring a public health care forum on the provisions of President Obama’s new health care law from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, at the Avondale Public Library.
“The new health care law is a great step forward. However, if our objective is for everyone to have the same, high quality, affordable health care, the bill doesn’t cover everybody, isn’t the same for everybody, and may not be affordable for many people,” Rep. Hilliard said. “Therefore, it’s a glass both half full and half empty. When I am elected, my job will be as an advocate for its improvement.”
J. Walden Retan, M.D., retired Birmingham physician and founder of Health Care for Everyone – Alabama, will be the speaker and will provide a timetable for implementation of each new provision, some of which will begin in early June.
Calls for Increased Funding for Training Additional Nurses
Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr. praised the nation’s nurses Saturday for their role in health care for Americans and called for additional funding for the training of nurses to serve the demand created by the Obama administration’s new health care la..
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report s that Registered Nurses rank high in the Top 10 Professions with the largest projected job growth in the near future.
“As Americans age, there is a greater need for trained nurses. Yet our nursing schools are being forced to turn away thousands of qualified applicants because there are not enough instructors to teach these students,” Hilliard said. “Today I call for increased funding for higher education for our nurses.”
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
