HEALTHCARE THREAD

how did you evade the ilxor saxophone defense system?

J0hn how can you defile the memories of all the punks who fought and died against the smoothness

man i knew that program was straight pork :(

how did you evade the ilxor saxophone defense system?

they were distracted by our bitchin members only jackets in muted pastels

gonna go put on some metheny

*taps toes*

I hope the Christmas album is shipping

xxp

A Smooth Christmas is in stores now

reviewers are saying it's totally smooth

metheny & mainstream dem policies are pretty milquetoast ; )

Metheny needs more roughly accurate unmanned drones

"&(*@#@^&-up and smooth, just like Obama-care"

- - R. Christgau

if max could only see the similarities between avatar and obamacare then he would understand

this is why us grouchy types are trying to rebrand it by dropping the "e" - obamacar = rhymes with "avatar" = how'd you feel about "avatar" = cool, maybe you should listen to some smooth jazz

Obamacar will turn you into a blue-skinned CGI Dem voter who repeats "Politics is the art of the possible" whenever Rahm Emanuel pushes a button

yes but then I will hack into the supercomputer that allows evil Rahm to carry out this scheme and then when he pushes the button it will make people buy A Smooth Christmas and I will share the wealth with all my ilx bros

A Smooth Plan, from a Smooth Man

http://jazzstation-oblogdearnaldodesouteiros.blogspot.com/2008/10/pat-metheny-on-barack-obama.html

You guys got onomatopoetic while I was at a two-hour meeting!

my man Al Franken tells Lieberman to shut the fuck up

The Corner is, predictably, outrated. They quote John McCain approvingly:

Rising to defend Lieberman he told Franken that in 20-plus years in the Senate, he’d never seen a member denied an extra minute or two of floor time.

“I don't know what's happening here in this body,” McCain said, “but I think it is wrong.

Well, did Lincoln Chafee ever oppose the GOP as shamelessly as Joe?

LOL then another senator got up and told McDementia that they'd curtailed someone - oooh - about two hours before.

“I don't know what's happeninghere in this body,” McCain said.

grassley's "republican position" that leads the latest issue of NEJM is pretty dumb

MoveOn.org is pushing for Bernie Sanders to drop his support and demand some version of the public option (good luck with that guys)

yeah, let's push for something that has even less of a chance of passing.

i 4 1 welcome our insurance overlords

good luck lolmerica

watching kuttner and taibbi on moyers last night, :(.

why do some folks who say this bill is not obama's fault because he doesn't have the real power to craft, promote, and pass legislation also argue that the bill MUST pass or else obama will have no chance to craft, promote and pass subsequent crucial reforms?

whos arguing that? my take is that congress should pass this bill so that in the future congress can improve on it. i dont know that obamas influence has anything to do with it, beyond quibbling about how much more he could have done to encourage the legislation.

that's my take too, but kuttner was big on the political optics/fallout for obama. he also said he's hopeful that obama will promote a more anti corporate/anti wall st agenda after the midterms. hope, change, obama's very new to this etc. taibbi was politely "why on earth do you think that based upon everything that you've seen"?

i do think that obama's influence was more important than you believe though. the parameters of the argument started in his office imo.

its on yall

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126123257035198659.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

I like the way future congresses have "improved on" the USA PATRIOT Act

impossible to be happy now after the nelson compromise, sorry, max. like for real sorry. I try to buy into the whole "think of the positives, lives saved," etc., and but it still reads as: we're going to let the right continue their march toward undoing the gains of reproductive rights & basically hand the discourse over to them in exchange for getting the bill through. a terrible tradeoff and as I said earlier one that will haunt, not the party - because who cares - but women and families who believe in their right to reproductive choice.

i actually havent seen the specifics of the nelson compromise so im holding off on judgment--like i said on the other thread i agree with you about this issue

I know you do I'm just crying in my sleeve a little because I know people who gave lots of their lives & selves to the struggle for reproductive rights, who took real hits in their personal lives for it, it sucks to know that their experiences & battles don't count for much with the national party when it comes right down to it.

ill wait till i see exactly what was given up before i let the tears flow

but point taken

Then there's this:

Nelson and the Latest 'Compromise' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A little earlier, I posted on Twitter, asking what Cecile Richards and Barbara Boxer are getting in exchange for shutting up about language that is making Bill Nelson happy. They'll shut up, though, if it looks nothing like Stupak. And that's what I'm hearing from the Senate — that what Nelson's okaying is nothing like Stupak — which, frankly, Nelson warned us about in his press conference when he noted that some of his colleagues wouldn't agree with him. And so the takeaway this morning is that Nelson's committment to the most innocent human life has a price tag on it? A sickening, dismaying possibility.

bear in mind though that you are quoting an insane person so her words should be taken as completely meaningless

A sickening, dismaying possibility.

Unlike the so-called Stupak language in the House, Nelson's abortion language would not forbid people who receive subsidy assistance from the federal government from buying insurance policies that cover abortion. However, according to Nelson, the money that pays for each such policy will have to be separated into two pools--one that pays for the abortion coverage, and one for all other services.

Politico on what the compromise amounts to.

Nelson agreed to support the bill after Democrats strengthened restrictions on federal funding of abortion. In the bill, states can opt out from allowing plans to cover abortion in the insurance exchange. Also, enrollees in plans covering abortion pay separate checks – one for abortion, one for the rest of services.

should be branded the Scarlet Letter provision imo & is a lowdown dirty shame - I'd think there'd be right-to-privacy issues involved, too (if your plan is through work, anybody in payroll gets to see what you're buying - am I wrong on that?)

xpost

yeah i dont really understand the 'separate checks' thing

i guess its supposed to SHAME the harlots who are receiving legal & federally guaranteed medical procedures opposed by ben nelson

it affects plans paid by your employer?

it's to prevent people from buying the abortion coverage & to further ostracize people who believe in reproductive rights - standard aggressive fear tactics like the stuff they've been trying to pull in Oklahoma

it affects plans paid by your employer?

I don't know that is why I asked if I was wrong. if it doesn't, though, I would guess pressure on insurance companies to follow suit will be heavy from these people - this is a doctrinal victory for them, a big one. which though we already knew this - it's been clear for a long time that the support of anti-choice moderates is a very very appealing thing to the Democratic party, which would, I think, very much like to to shed itself of any description involving the term "pro-choice."

i think this is the rub w/ the segregated funds thing:

The amendment also requires that health plans that provide abortion services segregate the premiums from any federal subsidies into separate accounts so that federal funds don't pay for abortion services.

yeah, in theory it shouldn't affect them i think. in practice i don't know if this will change what companies offer to employers buying plans with private funds.