The Last Lion of the Senate

Ted Kennedy's life and work in the Senate, I hope, should be a lesson to its 'blue dogs' amok, that they will not be remembered by their countrymen, when they hold up progress.

Teddy was one of the few left who could 'take the floor'.

A few years ago he dusted-up the place on hate crimes, with an impassioned speech. Nothing you'd ever hear out of today's media-savvy, TV-conscious soundbiters. The bulk of that is not on youTube, but the introduction of the bill is:

Here is Kennedy, with words that seem prophetic given what we now know about how far King George "The Decider" was willing to go:

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The Economics of the New Healthcare

Paul Krugman says it's Switzerland, more or less, that's on offer. I understand the point.

Yet, under the new scheme, what keeps healthcare companies, profit maximizers, from hiking their prices?

Afterall, you see the proposal to drop inter-state regulations for insurance companies. So, could we end up with an American healthcare oligopoly? We dropped inter-state bank regs and got giant banks. How'd that work out? (I mean, will Bernanke's Fed drop a study comparing all the putative consumer cost savings of bank mega-mergers with the cost of the our current bank-oriented bailout, priced in trillions, now, in deficit and lost output?).

Compare also how telecom deregulation helped consumers, with fierce, beneficial price competition. Today's Comcast price of phone-internet-TV: $109/month. Today's FIOS price of phone-internet-TV: $109. Yes, that's right, there is no price competition at all going on, at least in my local market. (Out of pocket European costs are a fraction of that, so ...).

A THREE-PAYOR SYSTEM?

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Well, if everyone is forced to buy your insurance product, then it stands to reason you put all your profits into marketing, until you reach an oil-market like cartel power with just two-or-three other providers. Large companies will buy from the largest insurers - we wouldn't expect "IBM" to buy insurance from a new entrant to the market, with a low price. That behavior will hasten the path to consolidation, one could argue (unless large accounts are profitless for health insurers - I don't know). What's more, instead of paying for healthcare, consumers will be paying for ... insurance marketing. (!)

Maybe I'm wrong. Afterall, Switzerland does have many sellers of basic insurance.

But, they tier the market and charge based on 'individual risk' for all tiers, including the right to refuse insurance beyond the "basic sickness" contract. Put another way, there seems to still be a Swiss role for insurance companies to compete on how well they manage their risk pools.

Change needs to come, and these questions are not a clear indictment of HR3200.

Maybe it is a non-issue, because it is already an issue? For the small business, they already face significant oligopoly (someone should brief Kathleen Sibelius on just how little competition there is in this critical marketplace, one that everyone seems to target):

The five largest [insurance] carriers, when combined, represented three-quarters or more of the market in 19 of the 34 states supplying information, and they represented more than 90 percent in 7 of these states.

Better minds than mine, hopefully, have been in on designing what looks like a minimum standards health contract, that will pass for 'systemic reform'.

But, it would pay to have leading economists (and lawyers) give an idea of how they think insurance companies will respond to changes in their regulatory environment, of the kind proposed. At a minimum, it would be nice to know whether premiums really will come down in the near term, under the proposed give-get.

Last, if running an American health insurance oligopoly is the price to pay for universal care (10% of the total US healthcare bill is hundreds of billions), it would be nice to see that there is some thought to how that formulation actually drives administrative costs out of the system ...

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Secular Mullahs Among Us

Christopher Hitchens has provided great fun, skewering what he often calls the charlatans of the Christian faith, money grubbers who set themselves up in the worst possible ways. Dawkins isn't far behind.

But, keep an eye out for the secular mullahs, the secular charlatans, too.

They exist.

Look at this 'birther movement' closely. Have a look at how the regional Republican party is able to ... er, transcend fact-based analysis, on so many topics ('death panels', murderous immigrants stealing healthcare benefits, ...). They can even mobilize an army of 'believers', of quasi brown shirts, pretending to be independently motivated, concerned citizens at town hall meetings. (It wasn't just Roman emperors who paid for crowds, clearly).

There are plenty of secularists who are willing to exploit ignorance and superstitions. One doesn't have to single out the faith community or imply that it contrasts with a better world, one lead by 'secular reason'. It's plain that's an incomplete comparison, n'est pas?

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Give and Get: A Mandate For a Public Plan

HEALTHCARE REFORM, NOT INSURANCE REFORM

In the House Bill 3200, everyone will pay for healthcare. Those 'voluntarily without' will be taxed. The full power of the government will be used to collect money from them - you cannot discharge taxes or escape the taxman.

...if you are going to force people to have a plan - or to pay taxes if they do not - you should at least give them a high-quality, public, not-for-profit plan to choose,

It seems to me if you are going to force people to have a plan - or to pay taxes if they do not - you should at least give them a high-quality, public, not-for-profit plan to choose, even over their employer provided under-insurance plan. That's the real give-get.

Otherwise, you are just passing out big treats to the wealthy, who will no longer be subsidizing hospital care for the have-nots, and to the insurance companies, who will get a huge boost in enrollments, from the government mandate (as well as an implicit profitability guarantee from forced buyers).

If there are Senators, like Leiberman, who cannot stomach doing that, if one wants to 'start small' as Hillary once opined, but with reasonably big and far-reaching impact, then just start with dental. Offer up a public dental plan that everyone can opt into, re-directing their employer dollars, if they choose. The plan should refuse none and provide at least as good dental as the Senate gets, in terms of caps and co-pays.

The cards will fall in line after that.

Hey, a small, on-target start is better than a bad plan, I think.

The Democrats should be fighting for consumer choice, no matter how much some of them have forgotten. Something like what I've described would really put The People in charge of their healthcare.

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Bush Moves Beyond Dereliction of Duty

Someone needs to get Christie Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge in a room together.

For a long time, the worst charge that could be leveled against the Bush administration, including Rumsfeld, was dereliction of duty, for their lack of "A Plan for a Future Iraq". (Paid for in American lives, including the dereliction in Afghanistan, btw).

I doubt many seriously believe that Christie Todd's EPA was going to be allowed to shut down a good part of lower Manhattan. But she should talk to Tom Ridge and see if they can't have a confessional tour, given that Ridge is suggesting that the Administration was indeed interested in subverting the functions of government to political ends, in some of the worst possible frauds on the public.

They outsourced torture. They outsourced assassination, possibly.

And George the senior honestly thinks his son served or was serving honorably. The mind boggles.

Just as the National Security Archives are revealing what Nixon was doing to undermine Chile, perhaps someday we will also find out what Bush authorized for Venezuela.

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An Article 2 Army for a Vice President?

Was anybody surprised by this revelation, that a surrogate President might want a ... personal army?

...the Bush Administration, at the top, was conceptually clueless about how to wage a war against an organization like al-qaeda. And, their process of 'discovery' was so bad and so influenced by their GOP political ideology, that it took years, nearly a trillion dollars of debt-spending, and hundreds of American servicemen's lives for the leaders to clue in, let alone the havoc brought to non-Americans.

The framers of the constitution knew that checks and balances were ineffective, behind closed doors. A get-out-of-jail-free National Security 'secrecy blanket' and a 'classified budget' are as ripe for abuse as grapes for peeling.

The Democrats appear to have no comprehensive "liberal" strategy for national security issues of this type. It's a pity. They could find winnable electoral issues, I think.

Indeed, to some, team Obama's more-of-the-same is well off track.

Last, of course, we see that the Bush Administration, at the top, was conceptually clueless about how to wage a war against an organization like al-qaeda. And, their process of 'discovery' was so bad and so influenced by their GOP political ideology, that it took years, nearly a trillion dollars of debt-spending, and hundreds of American servicemen's lives for the leaders to clue in, let alone the havoc brought to non-Americans.

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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

DEFINITION OF BI-PARTISANSHIP: INFLUENCE THE LEGISLATION, THEN DON'T VOTE FOR IT, AFTERALL

The regional Republican critique of the "stimulus" makes one laugh, even if CNN thinks it is newsworthy (you could print almost anything on Politico and they would cover it).

Still, as the polls show, you do not have to be right or truthful to be popular. Their disinformation machine is formidable, yes?

PARTY OF NO IDEAS AND BAD IDEAS

Remember when we were told (sold?) we would need tax cuts (except on gasoline...the Pigou Club never disbanded), because that was all that was available to be timely?

Well, more data is in that suggests that you cannot induce job creation through tax cuts, in the short term, either.

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Regarding Krugman's wingflapping, I have to say that it appears that his argument has already lost inside D.C. From afar, it looks like Geithner and the Congress have accepted a quasi-policy of hope, as did Japan. I believe this when I hear phrases like "we are past the peak of foreclosure activity". I have less confidence, today, that so much signals a floor to asset valutions ...

It's not we haven't learned from history. It's that there are forces interested in not having a dispositive test of what we learned in the historical record, like a stimulus without massive tax cuts, for instance, something purely demand-side.

What's more, we are political victims of our own stabilization. The political will to take the bold decisions necessary isn't there because we have unemployment insurance, this time around.

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Quote for the Day

The widest circulation print paper is hardly liberal-biased ...

All of this is par for the course; the WSJ editorial page has been like this for 35 years. Nonetheless, it got me wondering: what do these people really believe?

I mean, they’re not stupid — life would be a lot easier if they were. So they know they’re not telling the truth. But they obviously believe that their dishonesty serves a higher truth — one that is, in effect, told only to Inner Party members, while the Outer Party makes do with prolefeed.

The question is, what is that higher truth? What do these people really believe in?

-Paul Krugman

Uh, ... themselves?

On a less cynical note, the regional Republicans, today, are partly like 60s leftist radicals - they believe only in criticism. How else can one justify holding mutual exclusive beliefs, even allowing for temporization?

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Art for Life

AN ART-LIFE LINK BEYOND AESTHETICS

A topic, a perspective that I suspect Hugh Hewitt, for one, would never understand (or embrace, really).

If we [Iranians] attend the banquet of silence to which we have been invited [by the Iranian government], the result will not only be suffocation and loss of our voices, but also eternal shame for ignoring the bloody murder of Neda [Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian woman killed by thugs in Tehran, who has become an icon of the struggle]. I believe in what [Julius] Caesar said [in William Shakespeare’s play] that, “a coward dies a thousand times, but the valiant tastes death but once.” Hence, it is with hope for freedom and justice for all Iranians that I take this perilous step [of writing the note].

-Bahman Farmanara, Iranian movie director

Photos of the ballot fraud, unwittingly provided by State Run Media Lie, IRNA.

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The Islamic Gulag in Khamenei's Iran - Mind Sucking Prisons

Where Truth is the enemy of the State, torture is put in service of the Big Lie - false confessions and more besides.



Islamic Declaration of Universal Human Rights

IX Right to Asylum

a) Every persecuted or oppressed person has the right to seek refuge and asylum. This right is guaranteed to every human being irrespective of race, religion, colour and sex.

b) Al Masjid Al Haram (the sacred house of Allah) in Mecca is a sanctuary for all Muslims.


VII Right to Protection Against Torture

No person shall be subjected to torture in mind or body, or degraded, or threatened with injury either to himself or to anyone related to or held dear by him, or forcibly made to confess to the commission of a crime, or forced to consent to an act which is injurious to his interests.

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Gaijin

The Iranian hardliners are trying the 30 year old prop of blaming foreign elements, Zionists and Americans.

Until this past week, perhaps the judicial tyrants haven't fully realized that, sooner or later, these falsehoods create their own wake ...

But, could you imagine if this tidbit were ever able to be confirmed? Who, now, is using foreign elements (as well as spreading its homegrown troubles abroad)?:

Rumors say 3 Basij captured and being held in basements of homes. They only speak Arabic.

-twitter, via ASullivan

Other nations have used foreign pressure wisely. The Iranian Judicial Tyrants ... appear to have no plan but more of the same drudgery.

Until this past week, perhaps they haven't fully realized that, sooner or later, these falsehoods create their own wake, right? Allah u Akbar.

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Khatami Freaks Out - Without the Foil of America-of-Satan, the Islamic State Would Fall

Update: This is Ahmed Khatami who made these comments, NOT the former President Khatami. As such, his alarming comments are seriously countermanded by those made during the week by Montezari, who made a point out of the use plainclothes as enforcers, reflecting badly on the government and its credibility.
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WHEN GOVERNMENT BY PRONOUNCEMENT IS NOT ENOUGH

When I read the AP story, I thought they had interchanged "Khatami" and "Khamenei"; but it appears that Iran's former President Khatami, a "moderate/reformer", is at the limit of what we can consider to be a cleric's natural leadership abilities. Basically, under pressure, he's freaking out (once again).

...few of the military-political clerics there appear to know how to be persuasive - too many just issue death threats and juridical blame threats

Maybe it is because his idea of 'going shopping' at the bazaar as a way to shut it down and peacefully protest wasn't followed, as people showed up in front of the Parliament instead. *Who knows? But, few of the military-political clerics there appear to know how to be persuasive - too many just issue death threats and juridical blame threats, to some degree, rushing to set-up these show-court trials for the protesters.

Anyway, it's reported that he's sermonized "cruelty", "no mercy", and some despotic, extra-legal concept called 'making an example' out of people. (Crime and punishment are meant to be equal under the law, not influenced by such passions ...).

INSULTING THE MOST EDUCATED OF PEOPLES WITH SATAN BABY-TALK

He's gone along with reviving 'fear of the other' (Israel, America - 'Great Satan', and now adding Britain to their hate parade). Such fear and demonization has been the long-time prop for a regime obviously unable to stand on its own, without a foil. It's a prop with a considerable cost, a waste of the country's considerable resources, and a stalwart of the Guard's ability to self-enrich.

Face it, the system just doesn't "know" how to handle conflict, real conflict, a real contest of ideas, and a truly meaningful, peaceful exchange of power.

It's a very formalized system, at the top, that's fragile because of it, dangerously fragile. It's far too binary: either you live in a narrow row or DEATH.

Consider that Western pluralism, for all its faults, inequities, lethargy, corporate capture, and injustice, is not nearly so punishing as all that.

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*Khatami may have been played. One of my suspicions is shared on Lede blog: "Last night Ms. Setrakian said that she had interviewed an analyst “who thinks Iran’s authorities are calling the new protests, bringing out front line of protesters so they pick them off.”

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Another, Gone Too Soon

Michael Jackson sings Gone Too Soon

For Ryan White, but sung also, in 1993. Jackson had a significant social conscience that seems to have not made it much above the glow of his super-stardom, somehow, even despite 'We are the world' and much else besides.

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Khamenei Starts His 'Islamic Gulag' In Earnest

THE ELUSIVE 'PERMANENT REVOLUTION' UNDER TYRANNY OF THE JURIST


via NIAC:

4:05 pm: 70 university professors arrested – According to Kalemeh, 70 university professors were arrested today after meeting with Mousavi Trotsky. According to the report, “there is no information available on where these professors were taken.”

Update: Apparently "the guillotine" will be satisfied with just four (4). The rest will be released (until next time?).

Continuation of Daily Show Series:

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The comedic interview with his father is also available.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ebrahim Yazdi's Arrest
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

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Ali al-Sistani - Islam is calling

BETTER WAYS TO RESTORE ORDER THAN SUPREME ARROGANCE

The emergence of the wrongful role of Khamenei's young son, both in action and in pretending to something as obscene as a right of succession to "Supreme Leader", may be something that gives older clerics room to do something.

One who could play a significant part is the very elderly Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Najef but of Iranian ancestry. He could ask that people open up their homes, both in Iraq and Iran, to the politically disenfranchised of Iran.

This would be a humanitarian gesture that fits, that would also send an indirect signal to the hardliners to unclench their fist, presently, that there are limits, that "Islamic" show-trials for protesters with a universal right to express their beliefs will not be accepted.

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The Hostile Indifference of the World?

When will the millions come to Western streets, to witness (who cares what Obama is saying, exaclty, parsed in every detail by the media and the political class)?

How can you start life at 20, with this? Khamenei - Molech - is eating the young of his Nation:



Update: other footage confirms that Basiji, whether authorized or not, involved in open fire.

Other news:

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• The regime has unlawfully "evacuated" Neda's family, according to neighbor eye-witness reports, no doubt trying to prevent any rally place, any impromptu shrine for veneration. She will be "wiped from the pages of History", as A-Nejad once said of Israel. (They will try...).
  
• To deflect the upcoming onslaught of international reprisals and difficulties for an emerging Stalinist like himself, Khamenei has issued a statement with his repeated, all-important message: blame. Guess who? Yes, it is everyone but his divine self. This time, he takes aim at the candidates and their "regional" activities, which he says will have national impact.
• The clever message(s) to go to the bazaars "to shop" apparently did not go through - reports today are from near the Parliament. *sigh*
• The "Shah" reportedly behind the descending iron veil? It is the greedy son of the current Supreme Leader, reportedly favored by his father and others to 'inherit' the position from his cancerous dad.
• Just like the Fedayeen-Saddam, the basiji are reportedly being paid handsomely to beat people, savagely and extra-judicially, which is patently unlawful.
• There is eye-witness evidence that the regime will not be having the dead testify, so to speak, at the upcoming show trials of those arrested. Evidence is critical in Islamic law too, so bodies are being removed from Hospitals by ... well, by The State's Big Lie, of course.
  

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The Abiding Place for Private Health Insurance ...

A DIFFERENT KIND OF DEFENSE OF "THE PUBLIC PLAN"

The kind of insurance worth buying is catastrophic insurance. That is what the private market should migrate toward providing.

The kind of insurance worth having is catastrophic insurance. That is what the private market should migrate toward providing.

Those formulating legislation, now, should see that as a possible vision of the restructuring of how health care is financed in America.

In the long run, you get your primary care, basic health and dental, from a government or govt-private partnership, unless you are wealthy enough to have super-pamper private access to something else.

American employers, eventually focus on providing salutary preventive care benefits and, possibly, catastrophic coverage, of both pre and post-retirement varieties.

In this way, the vexing problem of how much money is available for heroic treatments is not fully dealt with, until such time as the nation can afford to do so.

One could think of a phasing in and out period for this of seven years, just to pick a number. The government could help a catastrophic insurance market get started in that period, perhaps by underwriting residual risks or using creative ways to bring liquidity to the bonds that would...

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