Astroturf
Medicare Advantage is federally-funded, private insurance administered for profit, and therefore not as efficient at delivering benefits as is plain old Medicare. With a Democratically-led Congress considering cutting Medicare Advantage funding, the private insurers are playing dirty when it comes to cobbling together the appearance of grass-roots support for their profiteering:
Across Massachusetts, senior citizens are [...]
Cootiephobia
Kandahar Taliban have claimed responsibility for the assassination of Afghani women’s rights activist Sitara Achakzai over the weekend:
Officials said the attack happened in broad daylight. The Taliban have claimed responsibility. Friends said Mrs Achakzai was returning from a provincial council meeting; her assassins were lying in wait nearby.
“This cold-blooded [...]
Hotel America
The Red Cross describes the conditions under which “high-value” detainees lived at Guantanamo Bay, alleging:
Suffocation by pouring water over a cloth placed over the nose and mouth…
Prolonged stress standing position, naked, held with the arms extended and chained above the head…
Beatings by use of a collar held around the detainees neck and used to forcefully [...]
By Any Other Name
In the name of “religious liberty,” the National Organization for Marriage has come out against marriage–because “Christians Against Christ” would be cliché, I suppose.
A new television ad against same-sex marriage is being slammed as deceptive and full of “half-truths” by gay rights groups. According to one report, $1.5 million will be spent to air the [...]
Marriage Momentum
More and more of the country is easing into the twentieth century:
The [Washington] D.C. Council unanimously voted yesterday to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere, joining a growing number of states to loosen restrictions on the unions.
The District’s actions came the same day as Vermont became the fourth state to recognize same-sex marriages and a week [...]
Party Of Nothing
A month after Congressional Democrats called their Republican counterparts’ bluff, demanding a GOP alternative to President Obama’s budget, they’ve still got nothing to offer. Not even good theater:
Thursday’s press conference given by House Republicans was expected to be the unveiling of the GOP budget proposal; but the document announced by Representative John Boehner(R-OH) turned out [...]
The Lost Art of the Apology
When a modern American public figure makes a stupid, offensive remark, standard damage control consists of defensive self-justification and insistence that no offense was actually given. It’s refreshing, then, to see President Obama able to come back from this faceplant:
During the first appearance of a sitting president on a late night talk show, President Obama [...]
Quote of the Decade
Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer this week on Hardball:
“After September 11th, having been hit once, how could we take a chance Saddam might not strike again? And that’s the threat that has been removed, and I think we’re all safer with that threat being removed.”
Professional liars are how the meme lives on–professional liars [...]
Without A Net
The FDIC, which insures your bank deposits, was not allowed by Congress to collect premiums from banks for a decade:
WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it [...]
Concerning Hereditary Principalities
If you thought the Bush Administration’s visible power grabs were excessive, take a careful look at what they planned. Formerly secret Justice Department memos are revealing the groundwork laid for suspension of further constitutional liberties, just on the president’s say-so:
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for [...]
