Where's the Outrage?

The Bill Moyers Journal is one of the smartest shows on television. This is the second show in recent months that Bill Moyers in which Moyers has covered health care. Mr. Wendell Potter, an executive at CIGNA, tells Moyer (and us) what we really already know. Health insurance companies do not have our best interests at heart. They focused primarily on Wall Street and the bottom line. This should not be news to anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis. I’ve been saying this for more than three months. Insurance companies will do whatever is necessary to make money. They will deny claims that are perfectly legitimate. They will cut you or a small business from their coverage if there are “too many” claims in any given year.

I have to say a couple words about Wendell Potter. It isn’t that I think he’s lying. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. My problem with Mr. Potter is that he is right about the millions of dollars in salary and other compensation from CIGNA. Now that he has retired, he wants to clear his conscience. For lack of a better term. There are better terms… including one word that starts with an “F,” but let’s call it the Scott McClellan Syndrome. As you recall, Scott McClellan was press secretary to President George W. Bush. He’d been with Bush for a number of years, including when Bush was governor in Texas. When he left the Bush administration, he signed a large contract to write a book which was critical of an administration that he defended day in and day out for a number of years. Wendell Potter is that same kind of person.

In spite of my own personal aversion to people like Mr. Potter, this is an excellent interview by Bill Moyers. As you watch these videos, please think of what is going on on Capital Hill right now. The insurance industry is “promising” to cut costs.  Where are these cuts going to come from? Executive salaries? Less coverage for fewer people? Are we really going to see those cuts at all? You decide. Enjoy!!

Bill MOyers Journal - Wendell Potter [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bill Moyers Journal part 2 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bill Moyers Journal - Wendell Potter [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bill Moyers, Healthcare by ecthompson md
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In these hard times, it is difficult to read and watch the sobering news reports about our mounting deficit. According to the Associated Press, the deficit has reached an all time high of 1 trillion dollars and it will continue to increase to almost 2 trillion by the end of the year.

I think it’s funny how Republicans are complaining about President Obama increasing the debt however left with the tremendous task of undoing what the president of the last 8 years has helped to create, it will take MONEY!!  I wonder why people are shocked that the deficit is growing? We are still involved in a war. Unemployment in America is extremely high which means less taxes paid to the government. The housing market has declined due to lack of wealth of the average citizen.
Now there are rising concerns about the value of the dollar and foreign investments. Some fear that foreign investors will begin to scale back their investments in the United States due to fear of inflation. Certainly, this is a legitimate concern on their part. But, like my grandmother always said, “you have to have faith like a mustard seed”.

For the first time in my lifetime, I actually trust our president to make decisions that will end up helping us in the long run. After all, how much worse can the situation become? I wish more people would realize that it is going to take time, funds, and smart strategy to alleviate the problems of this recession and our debt.

Tags: Domestic Issues by Blowfish
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David Waldman of the Daily Kos and Congress Matters has the best summary of everything Sotomayor.  Live blogging at a couple of places – Scotusblog and Congress Matters.

From DK:

All Congress-watching eyes are expected to turn today to the Senate Judiciary Committee, as they begin their consideration of the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. And the Committee, aware of the intense interest, will be live streaming video of the hearing, which they’re wisely making available in blog-embeddable format. So that’s exciting in itself. They know where the interest lies.

Thinking of popping some popcorn and watching the proceedings? If it’s Sotomayor you want to hear from, make sure you get lunch first. And maybe a nap. Because although the hearings are expected to be gaveled into session at 10 a.m., the first order of business is opening statements. From the Senators. Nineteen of them. For up to ten minutes apiece. Plus statements of introduction from home state Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand.

That’s Washington for you. Three to four hours of opening statements — plus a lunch break — before the person you’re supposed to be talking about even gets to say anything. And then, once she makes her own opening statement, they’ll adjourn for the day. It will take an entire day to “open” things with statements. You want to see someone ask a question? Come back tomorrow.

Meanwhile, some resources:

Interested in embedding the video in your blog? Judiciary Committee Dems have made it easy. Just follow this link, choose your format, and (theoretically) you’re good to go. Video clips, highlights, etc. to be made available throughout the day here.

Plenty of good previews circulating online, too. (And if you find any more good ones, throw us a link in the comments.)

Why not start here, with Adam Serwer of TAP?

And perhaps something from Daniel Schuman of the Sunlight Foundation?

Myths vs. Facts, from Ian Millhiser at the Center for American Progress? [Read more →]

Tags: Legal, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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I get so frustrated listening to the healthcare debate that I can only listen to it in small bits. So Republican Senator Lamar Alexander is talking about taxing something if you are ready have the “Cadillac” of health insurance plans. What the heck is that? Any health insurance plan offered in 2009 is a fraction of what was offered in 1989. There are no Cadillac insurance plans anymore. He goes on to talk about some plan in which the government gives Americans money (I guess in tax breaks or tax rebates) in which to buy health insurance. This has got to be a popular plan with the insurance companies.

Wolf Blitzer, who for the most part is clueless, states that in order to get coverage it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The statement is simply wrong. The statement should be in order to keep giving insurance companies our money we will need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars. If we exclude insurance companies universal coverage will not cost any more than we’re paying now.

Senator Judd Gregg asked a good question but then has a stupid answer. Why are going to spend more money on healthcare? We are already spending enough (my answer not his). Senator Gregg is 100% wrong when he says that there are good studies which suggest that if you give patients incentives they will purchase better healthcare. This is simply wrong. It is wrong in a number of ways — first, the majority of patients do not want to go through some complex permutation of healthcare plans to decide what’s best for them. Secondly, Senator Gregg is asking patients to project into the future as to what their healthcare problems will be. As a trauma surgeon, I can tell you that most people do not plan on seeing me. Most people think of themselves as careful and thoughtful.

Senator Judd Gregg then launches into the fear tactics that Republicans have been using for nearly 18 years on healthcare reform. He suggests that the healthcare in Canada and England is awful. He suggests that a single-payer system would lead to rationing of health care. One of the things that he doesn’t say is that currently insurance companies are rationing healthcare. They are deciding what to pay for and what not to pay for. So the current system not only rations but puts a for-profit company (insurance) between you and your doctor. The single-payer system puts nothing between you and your doctor. What could be simpler?

Update: Senator Judd Gregg also had some disturbing statistics about breast cancer in England and the United States and survival rates. Fortunately, there’s something called the Internet. You can look up the survival rates in England and the survival rates here in the United States. The survival rates in England are actually better than they are here in the US. This really should not be a surprise to anyone. Everybody in England has insurance. A large number of Americans do not have insurance. These Americans present later, with more advanced disease and have poorer outcomes. This drives down the overall survival rate.

Senator Conrad is still pushing these co-ops as viable alternatives. It is clear that these co-ops are not viable alternatives and would be crushed by insurance companies. I have talked about the utter stupidity of this co-op option. I haven’t changed my mind.

The bottom line in this healthcare debate is obvious. Confuse, obfuscate and dance around the issue. The issue is simply this — do health insurance companies add value to healthcare? If the answer is yes then we need to spend time talking about healthcare co-ops in some sort of hybrid plan to get everyone covered. If the answer is no, then we need to quit wasting time talking about giving tax rebates to people so that they can afford insurance. Senator Stabenow understands the problem completely. She’s the only one on the show that made any sense.

Tags: Healthcare by ecthompson md
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Oh, this is a very good show. (At the end of this post, if you can answer a simple question, you could win a $50 or $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com.)

SARAH PALIN STEPS DOWN – In a very rambling speech that beat up the press, Sarah Palin announced that she will not run for re-election and is stepping down as Alaska’s #1 point guard. Very Confusing.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! The economy shed another 467,000 jobs in June!  There are now 14.7 million unemployed workers in this country, up 7.2 million from the start of the recession.  The picture changes dramatically, though, when considering the broader measure of underemployment. If the ranks of the “marginally attached” (jobless workers who want a job but are not actively seeking work and so are not counted as officially unemployed) and “involuntary part-time workers” (those who want full-time jobs but can’t get the hours) are added to the mix, the figure rises to 25.9 million, which means nearly one in six U.S. workers (16.5%) is either un- or underemployed.

While all groups have experienced large increases in unemployment during this recession, some are feeling the effects of the downturn more than others.  In June, unemployment was 14.7% among black workers, 12.2% among Hispanic workers, and 8.7% among white workers (increases of 5.8, 6.0, and 4.3 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).  Male unemployment increased to 10.6% in June, compared to 8.3% for women (increases of 5.6 and 3.5 percentage points).  For workers with a college degree, the unemployment rate is 4.7%, and unemployment among those with only a high school diploma, at 9.8%, is more than double that of college-educated workers.  Workers with less job experience are also particularly hard hit –  those age 16-24 face an unemployment rate of 17.8%; 25-54 year olds are seeing 8.5%; and those over 54 are at 7% (up 6.2, 4.5, and 3.9 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).

HEALTH CARE NOW Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd outlined a revised health care plan Wednesday night that includes a public plan, costs less, and covers more Americans than previous versions. The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. [Read more →]

The Errington Thompson Show 7-4-09 [ 49:41 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Economy, Healthcare, Music, Party Politics, Podcasts by ecthompson md
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Man, this group is RED HOT. Two tunes in the top 10! Da’ Black Eyed Peas. ”Boom, Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.”

Artist:  Black Eyed Peas
Tune: “I Gotta Feeling”

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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I could and was going to write a very lengthy post on this new Inspector General’s Report. I think the revelations are amazing. President George W. Bush and other administration officials knew that they had a program which was illegal. This report is beginning to show us the full extent to which President Bush and others went to lie and to deceive Attorney General John Ashcroft, Deputy Attorney General James Comey and members of Congress.

Keith Olbermann did a good job of summarizing some of most egregious offenses that are outlined in this report. Please watch the video:

Think Progress has a lengthy post with outstanding links. The following is from Think Progress:

A congressionally-mandated report by Inspectors General of five separate intelligence agencies confirms that the Bush administration carried out “unprecedented,” massive surveillance activities beyond the warrantless wirteapping program that had previously been revealed. The Bush administration authorized the program without fully notifying Congress:

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., told The Associated Press she was shocked to learn of the existence of other classified programs beyond the warrantless wiretapping.

Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a terse reference to other classified programs in an August 2007 letter to Congress. But Harman said that when she had asked Gonzales two years earlier if the government was conducting any other undisclosed intelligence activities, he denied it.

“He looked me in the eye and said ‘no,’” she said Friday.

As ThinkProgress previously reported, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s testimony before Congress implied that “other programs exist for domestic spying” outside of the NSA program. Gonzales even stated in 2007 that “other intelligence activities” existed. The new report found Gonzales’ statements to be “incomplete and confusing” and “inaccurate,” though not intentionally misleading.

Attorney General John Ashcroft had originally given authorization for the program based on a “misimpression” of what activities the NSA was actually conducting. The lack of full disclosure led to the showdown in Ashcroft’s hospital room in 2004, which almost caused a mass resignation at DoJ.
[Read more →]

Tags: Bush Administration, Domestic Spying by ecthompson md
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In a private ceremony Friday, Sahel Kazemi was buried in a meek brown casket at Jacksonville Memory Gardens.

Approximately 30 friends and family members attended the half hour ceremony of the late 20 year old who shot football great Steve McNair before turning the gun on herself. Reporters and photographers were prevented from covering the ceremony as well as speaking to the family of the deceased. On another note, what was the motive for the murder suicide?

I personally didn’t believe McNair was going to leave his wife for a 20 year old waitress. The man had four children and 12 years of marriage. Well I guess I should say I hope he wasn’t considering leaving his family for his 20 year old mistress.

However, after reading up on Kazemi, according to her family she was very happy and believed McNair was in the final stages of divorcing his wife even though there were no county reports supporting this idea.

In an article from the AP, Kazemi’s nephew Farzin Abdi said Kazemi had it made with McNair taking care of everything and was enjoying her life. According to Abdi, McNair actually loved Kazemi, “The reason he said he loves her is because she’s not trying to use him like other girls. She was different from other girls he had been with,” Abdi said.

However, police said Kazemi began losing control within days before the shootings. According to police, Kazemi suspected McNair was having another affair and even followed the other suspected mistress home but decided not to confront her.

In addition, with her roommate moving out which automatically doubled her rent and two car payments which included a Kia as well as an Escalade given by McNair, Kazemi was headed towards financial trouble.

Days before the tragedy, Kazemi was pulled over for a DUI in the Cadillac Escalade that was in both of their names.

It seemed as if the stress of dating a married NFL great was becoming too much. The Thursday before her death, Kazemi reportedly purchased a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol and told an associate the next day “My life is a ball of sh- – and I should just end it.”

And the rest is history, a couple of days later both McNair and Kazemi were dead.

Tags: Sports by Blowfish
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I had no idea about this religious group called “The Family.” Oh, and why are there several congressmen living in this dorm? I really don’t understand this. This is very weird.

I must congratulate Rachel Maddow for digging into this very disturbing story.

Check this out:
Sanford was referring to the address of the Washington headquarters for The Family — perhaps the most politically powerful religious group in Washington. Sponsor of the annual National Prayer Breakfast that draws leading U.S. politicians, the secretive Christian organization also known as The Fellowship was founded in Seattle in 1935 by Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant and itinerant preacher who worked with the city’s poor and feared the pull of socialism. He claimed that God appeared to him to warn that Christianity’s preoccupation with the poor and weak was misguided, so Vereide began to minister to the powerful. He organized prayer breakfasts for political and business leaders to promote anti-Communism and anti-unionism, and the group later went on to work with dictators in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The family is headed by a man named Douglas Coe, who has controversially encouraged the men under his tutelage to follow Jesus with the same sort of blind devotion shown by Hitler’s followers. The members also refer to themselves as the “new chosen people,” believing that the Jews broke their covenant with God.

Incorporated today as a tax-free 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating under the name The Fellowship Foundation, the Family maintains a three-story, $1.1 million brick townhouse at 133 C St. in Washington — a former convent that’s now home to members of Congress while being treated like a church under tax law. Among the lawmakers who have rented rooms there are Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Other lawmakers linked to the group include Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who also recently admitted to an extramarital affair.

In a meeting with his cabinet after his public confession, the New York Times reported, Gov. Sanford apologized for letting people down but said he has no plans to resign. He referred to the biblical story of King David: “the way in which he fell mightily … but then picked up the pieces and built from there.” [Read more →]

Tags: Party Politics, Rachel Maddow Show, Religion by ecthompson md
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More Michael Jackson. I’m still digging for some more tunes that aren’t in the mainstream. Of course “Don’t Stop ‘Til you Get Enough” is plenty mainstream. Listen to the horn licks. They are crisp and clean. I love ‘em.

Artist:  Michael Jackson
Tune: Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

Tags: Music by ecthompson md
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I was sort of disturbed to hear that the king of pop, Michael Jackson has not been officially laid to rest. According to reports there are some differences among the family with where to bury him.

It has been reported that the 50 year old icon’s father, Joe Jackson and his brother Jermaine Jackson, actually want Michael to spend eternity at the infamous Neverland ranch but his mother Katherine and the other family say no.

Now my main question is, why would you want to bury a loved one in a place that caused them much turmoil in life?
As everyone probably knows, Michael was staying at the Neverland Ranch when he was accused of child molestation. He often had young children over as well as their parents at times.

Now I must admit, I still don’t know how I feel about the child molestation charges against the “King of Pop” and I never fully understood his interactions or relationships with young children but who am I to judge? ?
I find it hard to believe that the Jackson family would be bickering over something like this, especially after the tremendous display of unity during Michael’s memorial service Tuesday.
I just hope this doesn’t turn into the same situation that happened with James Brown after his death. James Brown was buried well after his death.

Michael Jackson’s body is currently being held in Barry Gordy’s mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery until the family comes to some type of agreement on where he will be laid to rest.

Tags: Entertainment, Music by Blowfish
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I have now been arguing for months about a single-payer, universal health care plan which requires no ADDITIONAL MONEY. I recently debunked the notion that private industry can somehow work better than the government. At the very least, even Republicans have to admit that the government has been standing for over 250 years. Name one business that has been standing for over 200 years. Can you name any? Some of the most profitable and long-lasting businesses, like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, have just collapsed under the weight of their own stupidity and greed.

Now we find new secrecy being applied to healthcare reform. Somewhere in the bowels of Congress or at one of those trendy restaurants over a couple martinis, politicians are making deals. Why? This is very simple. I don’t want a hybrid (public-private system) which will be more efficient and less cost-effective. The only reason to have a hybrid system of any sort is so that Americans can pay insurance companies money. There is no other reason. So I’m figuring the reason that they are our these backroom deals is so that Americans won’t see the quid pro quo.

If we want to keep paying billions of dollars so that corporate executives can have luxury jets and vacations in Fiji, all we have to do is look to Medicare Part D. (You can’t tell me that 90% of the congressman that voted for this huge piece of garbage even understood it.)  This was a huge disaster. The only reason it was so complex was that the Bush administration allowed the pharmaceutical companies to write the legislation. The purpose of the complexity was to confuse the American public. When, in fact, the whole system can be very simple. Allow the government to negotiate drug prices. Remove the dough hole.  Then we don’t have to worry about charity from large pharmaceutical companies that give away a couple of samples to the poor while they pocket billions from the rest of America.

If the goal of healthcare reform is to provide high-quality cost-effective medicine, the only reasonable solution is a single-payer universal healthcare. With a single-payer system we can accomplish the following:

• Cover all 46 million Americans who are currently uninsured without spending any more money.
• The government, working with doctors, other healthcare providers and researchers can develop “best practices” for the most common diseases like diabetes, hypertension and congestive heart failure.
• Medicare, Medicaid and all other health programs will be rolled into one program called universal healthcare. States save money. Businesses save money.
• The government negotiates with drug companies and other medical hospital suppliers to drive down costs.
• Pay primary care physicians to take care of a population of patients.
• Give MDs bonuses for keeping their population healthy.
• Give patients tax rebates for losing weight or staying in shape or not smoking.
• Pay hospitals to take care of a population of patients this removes incentives to keep patients in the hospital unnecessarily. It also removes incentives to readmit patients.
• Reform immigration so that we are covering all Americans with health care form.

From TP:

In a speech on the House floor this afternoon, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) railed against health care reform. Specifically, Broun attacked the idea of a public plan, saying “this program of ‘government option’ is being touted as being the panacea, the savior of allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price is gonna kill people.” Broun pointed to Canada and the United Kingdom in his argument against the public option, claiming that those countries “don’t have the appreciation of life as we do in our society.”

Watch it:

I hate when people say stupid things without one shred of data. People are going to die? Really? Why? Just because we aren’t going to allow insurance to rip us off any more? Insurance adds so much value that insurance by itself heals patients?

Update from dday:

• a deficit-neutral policy, which is what every single proposal for this bill has included;
• aggressive solutions to bending the cost curve, which also is a goal of pretty much everyone;
• protecting small businesses, which every iteration of the plan has, including the employer mandate proposals that exempt certain small businesses and make them eligible for purchasing health care through the insurance exchange;
• rural health equity, a pretty small point;
• a public option that doesn’t use Medicare bargaining rates, which isn’t different from what, for example, Chuck Schumer has called for, although I find that to be a toothless public option, which I’ll explain later;
• time to read the bill, which I support;
• bipartisanship, which is the most ridiculous of these demands, but which actually does exist in the bill on the Senate side, where dozens of Republican amendments have been included in the HELP Committee markup.

Bipartisanship is nice when both sides want to honestly work toward a solution. We have a fractured Democratic party with these so-called “Blue Dogs” who should support universal healthcare because it is budget neutral. Unfortunately, these Blue Dog Democrats do not support universal healthcare. Why is this? Instead, they’re talking about some hybrid option which is clearly going to cost billions of dollars and to be budget neutral will require raising money from somewhere. Then you have the Republican Party, whose only mission seems to be to obstruct whatever progress the Democrats are trying to make. They have not offered one intelligent alternative in the healthcare reform debate. They had no alternatives to the economic stimulus package. They’ve offered no alternatives to the climate change bill. So I’m not sure what bipartisanship is supposed to achieve if the Republicans insist on not offering any viable options.

Tags: Economy, Healthcare by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

Remember when everyone was raking Pelosi over the coals?  “She is lying…” was the mantra from the Right.

Watch the video:

From AmericaBlog:  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to Congress, and she was mercilessly attacked by the pundits, including MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. A couple of months ago, Morning Joe said “everyone” knew that the Speaker was”lying.” He also said that she needed to “shut up.” Now Joe Scarborough, in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s admission that the CIA did, in fact, lie to Congress, calls Pelosi his good friend. And he’s concerned about the grief she caught. Grief that he helped pile on.

Watch the Video (Thanks to Media Matters):

Marcy Wheeler took the time to actually read everybody’s statements.  (I posted that here.)  She concluded that the statements from Pelosi, Porter Gross and Leon Panetta were all consisent. She was right!

Tags: Media, National Intelligence, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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If you had your eyes glued to the TV and you were taking notes, you probably still missed it. The mainstream media seemed not to want to cover any substantive discussions about President Obama, Russia and loose nuclear weapons. I must admit, I did not even think about loose nuclear weapons. Currently, I’m reading Ron Suskind’s book, The Way of the World, which discusses an incident in 2006, in which Georgian officials capture a two-bit criminal who is smuggling uranium!

Smuggling uranium? One of the things that the Bush administration talked about (all the time) was weapons of mass destruction. We had to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. In 2002, ”I don’t have any doubt that al Qaeda was pursuing nuclear, biological and chemical warfare capabilities. It’s not our judgment at the moment that they were that far along, but I have no doubt that they were seeking to do so.” This is what U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told CNN.  What did the Bush administration do to secure loose nuclear weapons, especially in the former Soviet republic? I know, search your databanks. I couldn’t think of anything either.

In January 2008, Sam Nunn, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and William Perry wrote an Op-Ed in the WSJ which stated, “In October 2007, we convened veterans of the past six administrations, along with a number of other experts on nuclear issues, for a conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. There was general agreement about the importance of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons as a guide to our thinking about nuclear policies, and about the importance of a series of steps that will pull us back from the nuclear precipice.  The U.S. and Russia, which possess close to 95% of the world’s nuclear warheads, have a special responsibility, obligation and experience to demonstrate leadership, but other nations must join.” This is especially nice since Kissinger et al., were the ones that promoted the arms race three or four decades ago. But, the reasoning behind their recommendation is now becoming very clear. We can’t control every kilo of nuclear material. There is a bipartisan agreement in Congress to get rid of nuclear weapons.

Now for some more bone chilling realism. Where in Georgia did this uranium come from? South Ossetia. If that doesn’t sound familiar, it should. This was the region wanting to break away from Georgia during the 2008 presidential campaign. Remember John McCain declaring, “We are all Georgians now.”

South Ossetia is no bigger than Long Island. Yet in 2003, Georgian border guards caught another smuggler with 200 grams of weapons grade uranium. Now this is what bothers me. These are the two-bit criminals. We know that Russia has huge crime syndicates that are run by Al Capone types. If these nobodies can get their hands on weapons grade uranium then you know the big bosses sure can get their hands on whatever they want. Al Qaeda just needs to name the price and dirty bombs are going to be set off in a city near you. By the way, are the Georgia border guards better or worse than our American border guards? Because we know we only catch a fraction of the drugs that come into this country. Does Georgia just catch a fraction of the uranium is leaving their country?

In my opinion, President Obama set down and spoke with the Russian President Medvedev about these, loose nukes. This had to have been their number one priority. We cannot be serious about trying to stop the next terrorist attack without securing nuclear weapons. Forget the photo ops, the smiles and handshakes. If we can not secure nuclear weapons, none of that matters.

Tags: Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Obama administration, WMD by ecthompson md
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I really haven’t said much about Sen. John Ensign. When I first heard about his latest “I’m sorry please forgive me” press conference, I really didn’t write about it that much. It seems like we’ve been down this road so many times before. As events unfolded in South Carolina and with Michael Jackson, Sen. Ensign seems to have been pushed to the back burner. Well, somebody turn the heat on the back burner back up to high. The pot that is John Ensign is now boiling over.

First, below is the Dear John letter that Sen. John Ensign sent to his lover Cindy (Cynthia) Hampton. This letter is almost as bad as Gov. Mark Sanford’s e-mails. Somebody pass me the Pepto-Bismol.

One of the shadier aspects of this whole affair has been the fact that Sen. Ensign has placed both Cindy Hampton and her husband, Doug Hampton, on his payroll. Doug has broken his silence and has been talking to the Las Vegas Sun. The Hampton’s son, Brandon, was paid by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of which Sen. Ensign was the chairman. Then, today we learn that Ensign’s parents paid the Hamptons $96,000 back in April 2008 (the Hamptons took out a mortgage on their house for $1.2 million back in 2006. Outside of working for the Senator, what kind of work were these guys doing in order to be able to afford a $1.2 million home? Do you smell a fish?) CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) has asked the Department of Justice to look into Sen. Ensign’s payments. They may be illegal.

Watch the Video:

Tags: Legal, Party Politics, Rachel Maddow Show, Senate by ecthompson md
2 Comments »

As long as I can remember, Philadelphia has always been known as a tough town. The slogan — City of Brotherly Love — was just that, a slogan. If you’re a football fan, you may be old enough to remember when the Philadelphia fans pelted Santa with snowballs. The Cowboys, Redskins, and Giants can attest that the Philadelphia fans show you very little love. Heck, Sarah Palin, at her most popular, got booed at a Philadelphia Flyers game.

My mother was the first to tell me about this strange story. There was this inner-city day camp that made some sort of financial arrangement with a swim club. Once the children showed up there were racial slurs, according to some reports. The children were basically kicked out of the pool and asked not to return.

Maybe this is just some big misunderstanding. On the other hand, maybe not. I spent a good deal of time over the last week or so discussing affirmative action with some good friends who are physicians. Many of my feelings fell on deaf ears. Some of the physicians argued that America has become an equal society and that affirmative action is no longer needed. This swimming pool incident seems to beg the question — how many more areas are there like this in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, in the United States?

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

A state agency is investigating a Huntingdon Valley swim club for possible racial discrimination after the club revoked a contract to let children from a Northeast Philadelphia day camp swim at its pool.

Officials and anti-discrimination groups expressed concern over the allegedly race-motivated decision, while protesters assembled outside the Valley Club’s locked gates twice yesterday.

Among them were Silvia Carvalho, 32, of Northeast Philadelphia, and her daughter, Araceli Bagwell, 9, who had been among the city campers swimming at Valley Club.

“This is pathetic,” Carvalho said. “The next day, she was telling me she was a minority. I don’t want her looking at herself that way. We are not going to allow someone to humiliate us like this.” (more… )

Tags: Race by ecthompson md
2 Comments »

The new unemployment numbers from June were recently released showing that the current stimulus didn’t really help, well as of yet.
The unemployment rate seemed to have risen to 9.5 last month which is an indicator that the recession is still alive and well. With the economy losing 467,000 jobs in June, the reality of job figures improving since January is basically a non reality.
As of today it is sad to say that approximately 4 million Americans, which is nearly one – third of the unemployment rate, have been out of work for at least six months.

Now what I find amazing is the debate brewing on whether Barack Obama’s policies are to blame for the country’s economic epidemic. What I want to know is, how is Obama to blame for the economy? Come on people, he hasn’t been in office for a year. Why don’t we look at the president before Obama? The previous president had eight years in office and look at the country. How can one blame Obama? If anything, he has to clean up the mess created by George W. Bush.

Many wanted to criticize Obama’s policies and health care plans but I feel he’s doing what he thinks is best to pull our country out of the mess our previous president left us in.

Tags: Economy by Blowfish
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Last Friday, I mentioned in a fairly long post, Sarah Palin’s press conference was bizarre in many aspects. The governor of Alaska, from out of nowhere, decided that she was going to quit. She’s been a long time during her press conference trying to convince someone that quitting was not really quitting. She talked about being a fighter, being a point guard and calling audibles.

Brad Friedman, of Bradblog, has really been all over this story since it first broke last Friday. He has a number of contacts in Alaska. He was the first, to the best of our knowledge, to suggest that there may have been some sort of federal investigation prompting Gov. Palin to resign prior to the announcement of the indictments. It is clear that these allegations are somewhat nebulous but with the sudden announcement comes wild speculation.

Sarah Palin lives on the banks of Lake Lucille. The house is surprisingly beautiful. It is over 3400 ft.². Yet, neither she nor her husband really make a lot of money. When her husband stated that he built the house by himself, while he works as a fisherman and on an oil rig, if I’m not mistaken, this also raised a lot of eyebrows. It is not that it is impossible for him to build a house. Instead, I’m not sure when he would’ve had time to build a house.  This just adds more questions especially when we remember that Sarah Palin and Former Senator Ted Stevens were very close.

We must also take into account this huge sports facility that was built in Wasilla, Alaska where Sarah Palin was mayor. The sports facility cost somewhere between $13 and $15 million. This is a paltry sum of money if the facility was built in Atlanta, Chicago or Los Angeles. Instead, this was the most expensive facility built in the town of only 5000 when Sarah Palin was mayor.

Finally, Brad Friedman is known as an expert in the field of US elections. He has blogged extensively on the 2004 election and its multiple problems. I ask him a few questions about the 2008 election and what we need to do to make our elections more about the will of the people.

This is a great conversation with Brad Friedman of Brad blog.

The ET Show - What's up in Wasilla with Brad Friedman [ 11:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Blogging issues, Elections, Party Politics, Podcasts by ecthompson md
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Police reported today that the death of Titans star Steve McNair and his secret girlfriend was in fact a murder suicide.

According to police, 20 year old Sahel Kazemi was under the impression that her married boyfriend was having yet another affair. In addition police say Kazemi was having financial problems. With all of this built up anger and distress the 20 year old shot McNair four times while he was sleeping on the couch and then turned the gun on herself.
Investigations have shown that Kazemi was struggling to pay two car notes in addition to her rent doubling.
Now my question is, what was so surprising about him possibly having another affair, what did she think? The man was already cheating on his wife of 12 years with her in which he had only known her for approximately six months, come on now.

What was it about this woman that caused McNair to cheat on his wife and the mother of his four children? Why would he put himself in a situation such as this? I know it seems like almost a “norm” these days for athletes to cheat on their wives because of all the groupies and women that throw themselves at them.

I must admit I feel awful for Mechelle McNair. It’s bad enough that her husband and the father of her kids were murdered but on top of all of that, she has to find out he was murdered by his girlfriend on the side. I couldn’t begin to imagine how she must feel. I’m sure she has every kind of emotion going through her head from hurt to anger.
Was there any problems in their relationship, did she suspect that her husband may have been cheating? It seems that McNair’s side girlfriend, Kazemi thought he was going to get a divorce and she would move in with him.

Tags: Domestic Issues by Blowfish
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You know, we are on TV more and more.  Between being filmed in Sam’s Club, the bank and probably the mall, we’re all movie stars.  This means a lot of what we say and do is being recorded.  Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen knew that she was being recorded, yet she kept talking anyway.  Not only does she discount any notion of climate change and global warming, she also states as FACT that the earth is 6000 years old and finally that Arizona residents have nothing to worry about by accepting all of America’s uranium.  As she says, “you won’t know it’s there anyway.”  One of the craziest statements I’ve ever heard.  Keith Olbermann labeled her today’s worst person in the world. (Senator James Inhofe wins the silver.)  I really don’t think he needs to say anything in order to win a silver everyday.

Watch the video:

Tags: Countdown, Environment by ecthompson md
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