[kj] (OT) An American Sickness

[Concrete Cookie]

Personally, I think there is plenty of complacency and not enough anger from the left.  If there was, we'd have health care now.  We'd have  "left"... 

p.s. i completely disagree with his position on squirrels ;)


From: karen.weil at sddt.com
To: gathering at misera.net
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 10:28:41 -0700
Subject: Re: [kj] (OT) An American Sickness










I do, on occasion. He's a smart man (even if I don't 
always agree with him), but a little too strident for my tastes. (Don't blame 
him for being angry, but in general, there is too much "anger" in our country 
today, as it is.) 
But keep listening, Concrete.  I could see Jaz 
Coleman on his show, for sure ... 

k.w.
SoCal
 
 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: 
  Concrete Cookie 
  To: A list about all things Killing Joke 
  (the 
  Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 6:43 
  PM
  Subject: Re: [kj] (OT) An American 
  Sickness
  
do any of you listen to the Mike Malloy show?  Saves my 
  sanity..

http://www.ktlkam1150.com/pages/On_Air_Hosts.html?feed=119597&article=360442

on 
  6-9PM PST weekdays... on now


  
  Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 17:31:25 -0700
From: saulomar1 at yahoo.com
To: gathering at misera.net
Subject: Re: 
  [kj] (OT) An American Sickness


  

  
  
  > pseudoepedrine (precursor to methamphetamine). 
  Pretty surreal that you can get that over the counter, 
  > cheap... yet you'll get busted for a 
  joint.
   
  Wait, it gets better . . .
  http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2100781/new_method_to_make_meth_in_soda_bottles.html
   
   
  ... ... ... .... ... ... 
  
[looking at the 
  current state of 
  things..]
   
  'Save me...
    
  save 
  me from Tomorrow..
      I 
  don't want to sail in this Ship Of 
  Fools...'   
   
  

  

  
  
  From: Brendan 
  <bq at soundgardener.co.nz>
To: A list about all things Killing Joke 
  (the band!) <gathering at misera.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2009 8:12:05 
  PM
Subject: Re: [kj] (OT) An 
  American Sickness

 
  

  How expensive is it to get sick in the US? With / without 
  insurance? How much does insurance cost?
   
  This week I went to the chemist to get some flu stuff so I could 
  avoid taking time off work....the pills contain codeine (opiate) and 
  pseudoepedrine (precursor to methamphetamine). Pretty surreal that you can get 
  that over the counter, cheap, as well as alcohol (you can buy absinthe now, 
  70% alcohol...), yet you'll get busted for a joint.
   
  I mean, fair enough, that stuff works as a medicine. But so 
  does weed.
   
  Wonder what the lobbying power of all the healtcare 
  professionals in the US would add up to.. Cos unlike most commodities, 
  consumers can't boycott medicine. Captive market (similar to 
  oil...)

  
  
  From: gathering-bounces at misera.net 
  [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On Behalf Of folk 
  devil
Sent: Friday, 2 October 2009 7:44 AM
To: 
  gathering at misera.net
Subject: [kj] (OT) An American 
  Sickness


  If I were a Doctor in the USA, I would leave. My only future would 
  be as a pharmaceutical whore.
 
From the Guardian: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/lobbyists-millions-obama-healthcare-reform
 
America's 
  healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the 
  introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms promised by 
  Barack Obama. The campaign against the president has been waged in part 
  through substantial donations to key politicians.
Supporters of radical 
  reform of healthcare say legislation emerging from the US Senate reflects the 
  financial power of vested interests ‑ principally insurance companies, 
  pharmaceutical firms and hospitals ‑ that have worked to stop far-reaching 
  changes threatening their profits.
The industry and interest groups have 
  spent $380m (£238m) in recent months influencing healthcare legislation 
  through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members 
  of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to 
  the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law.
A former member 
  of Bill Clinton's cabinet says fears that the industry could throw its money 
  behind the populist rightwing backlash against public insurance have scared 
  the Obama White House into pulling back from the most significant reforms in 
  return for healthcare companies not trying to scupper the entire 
  legislation.
Drug and insurance companies say they are merely seeking to 
  educate politicians and the public. But with industry lobbyists swarming over 
  Capitol Hill ‑ there are six registered healthcare lobbyists for every member 
  of Congress ‑ a partner in the most powerful lobbying firm in Washington 
  acknowledged that healthcare firms' money "has had a lot of influence" and 
  that it is "morally suspect".
Reform groups say vast spending, and the 
  threat of a lot more being poured into advertisements against the 
  administration, has helped drug companies ensure there will be no cap on the 
  prices they charge for medicines ‑ one of the ways the White House had hoped 
  to keep down surging healthcare costs.
Insurance companies have done even 
  better as the new legislation will prove a business bonanza. It is not only 
  likely to kill off the threat of public health insurance, which threatened to 
  siphon off customers by offering lower premiums and better coverage, but will 
  force millions more people to take out private medical policies or face 
  prosecution.
"It's a total victory for the health insurance industry," said 
  Dr Steffie Woolhander, a GP, professor of medicine at Harvard University and 
  co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Programme (PNHP).
"What the 
  bill has done is use the coercive power of the state to force people to hand 
  their money over to a private entity which is the private insurance industry. 
  That is not what people were promised."
PNHP blames a political process it 
  says is corrupted by millions of dollars poured into the election campaigns of 
  members of Congress and influencing the discourse about health reform by 
  funding advertising campaigns, supposedly independent studies and patients 
  rights organisations that press the industry's interests.
A primary target 
  of criticism is Senator Max Baucus, the single largest recipient of health 
  industry political donations and chairman of the finance committee that 
  drafted the legislation criticised by Woolhander.
The committee this week 
  twice voted against including public insurance in the legislation, with Baucus 
  opposing it both times.
Baucus took $1.5m from the health sector for his 
  political fund in the past year. Other members of the committee have received 
  hundreds of thousands of dollars. They include Senator Pat Roberts, who last 
  week tried to stall the bill by arguing that lobbyists needed three days to 
  read it.
Baucus holds dinners for health industry executives at which they 
  pay thousands of dollars each to be at the table, and an annual fly-fishing 
  and golfing weekend in his home state of Montana that lobbyists pay handsomely 
  to attend. They have included John Jonas, who represents healthcare firms for 
  Patton Boggs, widely regarded as the top lobbying firm in Washington. Jonas, 
  who formerly worked on the congressional staff, acknowledges that political 
  contributions are intended to buy influence and says it works.
"It would be 
  very naive to say they're not influenced. The contributors certainly hope 
  they're influencing and the recipients probably ultimately are influenced," he 
  said. "I think it's a morally suspect practice, and then you have to look at 
  its application to see if it's morally bankrupt ... I think what's bad about 
  the system is it's got more and more lax over time.
"When I started in this 
  practice you did not talk issues at a fundraiser. It was impolite. And then 
  with this need for money, the system has got coarser over time so that they go 
  around the room asking what issues you're interested in, much more of a 
  linkage of dollars to a discussion of the issues now."
The health industry 
  permeates the process in other ways. At Baucus's side, drafting much of the 
  wording of the reform, was Liz Fowler, a senate committee counsel whose last 
  position was vice-president of the country's largest health insurer, 
  Wellpoint, which stands to be a principal beneficiary of the new 
  law.
Health companies and their lobby firms also recruit heavily among 
  congressional staffers as a means of maintaining influence.
Baucus declines 
  to discuss political donations but told Montana's Missoulian newspaper earlier 
  this year that "no one gets special treatment".
Robert Reich, the labour 
  secretary in the Clinton administration, says the Obama White House, mindful 
  of how the health industry killed off Clinton's attempts at reform, has grown 
  so fearful of industry money that it has quietly reached agreement to pull 
  back from price caps and public health insurance.
"The White House made a 
  Faustian bargain with big pharma and big insurance, essentially scuttling both 
  of these profit-squeezing mechanisms in return for these industries' agreement 
  not to oppose healthcare legislation with platoons of lobbyists and millions 
  of dollars of TV ads."
The pharmaceutical companies are apparently pleased 
  enough that they are now putting $120m into advertising supporting the 
  emerging legislation.
Jonas described the bill emerging from the Senate as 
  "in realm of what is politically possible".
"Is the bill overly distorted 
  by money? I don't think it actually is," he said. "It's a good bill in the 
  sense that it's a net improvement in the system ... [but] it's a bad bill if 
  you think it's supposed to be a comprehensive solution to the US healthcare problems."


  
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