Throwing In The Towel
Innocent?
A Republican Administration investigating the Republican House Leader and his top aide cops a plea?
Hello?Posted by Oink
04/04/2006 at 09:49 AM
Let’s look at the facts, again.
“Separately, a second one of DeLay’s former aides pleaded guilty last week in the widening Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal”
Who gives more money, Abermoff or Blue Cross Association of America?
Who has lobbyists up the wazoo in every state capitol and DC controlling our laws
Why is Liberal Democratic Senator Stabenow (D-MI) the biggest BLUE CROSS Senator
The President is giving a speech on Tax Free HSAs in CT in 5 minutes. Of course no one will report the trouble heading for Blue Cross and their giant monopoly. The Prez has the cross-hairs right on ‘em.
President Bush will go down in history as the father of the Ownership Society.
Vote Republican / Vote Zandstra for US Senate (Debbie Stabenow is a fine girl, BUT; she has a doll with a pin)
Posted by Z Woof
04/04/2006 at 10:32 AM
You can be both a Republican and an idiot. DeLay qualifies as both. The Democrats didn’t get him, he got himself. Good riddance!
I’ve enjoyed the hell out of reading two of that damn liberal Dershowitz’s books: “Reversal of Fortune” & “The Best Defense”. He makes two excellent points:
1. Most accused are guilty,
2. Most of my clients were, too.He goes on to show, correctly, why the guilty deserve a defense, and why ‘Proceedure’ by the cops and courts is important. Curiously, in the Sunny von Bulow case, before reading the book I was convinced the Claus was guilty. Afterwards, I’m doubtful that anyone even tried to kill her.
Posted by Oink
04/04/2006 at 12:17 PM
Delay has not been shown to have done anything illegal. The rules, which he and his campaign, followed are in need of revision, but that is another matter.
So, what has Delay done? He followed the edict espoused by Keanu in “Speed.” What do you do if a gunman has a gun to a hostage’s head? Take the hostage out of the equation - he shot the hostage in the leg.
Delay has taken himself out of the next campaign. His opponent had gotten big bucks from the usual Dhimmycrats sources (Streisand, Soros, etc) that came in ONLY because it was anti-Delay money, not pro-Lampson money.
Should be interesting to see how quickly the haterade money dries up now that the true target is out of the equation.
I am amazed at how quickly we have destroyed the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in America. I blame all those who have put the criminals rights above the victim, the crime, and society. They have made it less about the truth and too much about who wins. And winning isn’t always about the truth. [No matter which side you fall on, the OJ trial is perhaps our best example - although the Jackson messes are a close second]
What will happen in America if indeed Earle withdraws or Delay is found innocent? Tragically, by the time it ever comes to pass the worst of the damage can’t be undone - one it removed Delay, a mover and shaker from his DC position. Two it helped to ‘promote’ the cliche of the day, ‘culture of corruption’ from the dems and three it destroyed Delays chance of moving up in politics. Those are serious repercussions, if it is all bogus. And will anyone go after Earle? Doubt it.
And if Delay is guilty - why haven’t they fried him, tried him. Why did it take 3 Grand Juries just to ‘indict’ him. How long has this trial ‘not happened’????
As for Deshowitz - most is not ALL.
Presumption of Innocence is something I’d defend to the death—as a legal fiction. I’ve been empaneled on three juries; that defendant didn’t have to prove shit for me to find him innocent. The whole burden was on the prosecutor. I’d have been very pissed off and scared if there wasn’t a shred of evidence against him after the cops arrested him and the prosecutor arraigned him.
The same for the fiction of human equality. Bet you don’t use that when picking a babysitter or a husband. But it does mean that the penalty for killing a nice, good person isn’t any worse.
Posted by Oink
04/04/2006 at 05:28 PM
Ol’ Harvey here, folks. And I’m plenty frickaseed to see a hero of ours gettin’ the cold shoulder from the Grand (no, Great) Old Party this week. Who has done more for the Right in this country over the past 10 years? Who rid K street of greasy liberal lawyers? Who kept the Republican majority intact and with its ducks in a row? It was the Hammer, gosh darn it! Oh, he may have had a taste for the finer things in life that was beyond the means of a simple exterminator, but I, for one, will not begrudge him the odd St. Andrews golf outing here, or the occasional dinner out there. That’s how Washington works, for better or worse.
Nobody did more for a permanent Republican majority than the Hammer. The limp libs may call it gerrymandering, I call it, “Get the hell out of my yard before I sick the dogs on ya, longhair!” But now that homo Mehlman is selling him out, just like he did Sen. Frist. Where’s the defense been? Why aren’t they standing by his side in his time of need? Why isn’t sMehlman up in Russert’s face givin him what for? It’s just Tom and Jesus against the NY Times and Satan, and Mehlman is off twinkle-toin’ with David Dreier. Give me some ol’ fashioned republican gumption - these ‘log cabin’ Republicans should end up with the rest of Harvey’s logs - flushed.
I will be raising a longneck to citizen DeLay this evening and toasting all the things he’s done for us. Heck, I might even get hammered in honor of the Hammer. It’s a sad, sad day, my friends.
Posted by Harvey
04/04/2006 at 06:02 PM
While Tom DeLay tosses in the towel, Ted Kennedy is looking to hitch a ride in outer space:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060404/sc_afp/spaceastronomyoffbeat_060404000657
Warning: Socialism on the March
Health coverage reform follows state-by-state path
Updated 4/5/2006 3:17 AM
By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY
Dianna Cramer of Fairmount, Ill., is happy and relieved that her two boys, ages 14 and 9, will soon have health insurance, thanks to a new program that makes it available to all uninsured children in Illinois, no matter their family income.“One skateboard accident can wipe you out financially,” says Cramer.
Under the Covering All Kids Health Insurance Act approved by the state legislature last year, parents pay for the coverage based on their income, with a sliding scale of $40 a month to more than $100 a month per child.
It’s just one example of a state taking the initiative from the federal government in expanding health care coverage. As Washington continues to debate relatively minor changes to the health system, a growing number of states are thinking big:•Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday approved a law that would require everyone in the state to carry health insurance by 2007 or risk losing tax credits or facing fines. Employers would have to offer coverage or pay a $295 per worker annual assessment.
•Maryland has a law requiring some large employers to pay for coverage — and more than two dozen others are considering similar rules.
•Kansas, Maine and Minnesota and others are creating ways to help small businesses buy insurance.
•Oregon, New Mexico, California and Arizona are debating proposals to create universal health coverage for all residents.
Take Massachusetts, where Republican Gov. Mitt Romney last July confidently predicted passage of a health care-for-all plan in his state. Romney wants all individuals to be required to carry health insurance, with subsidies for those who can’t afford it.
But it took longer than Romney expected to get a bill approved. Debate stalled when lawmakers got hung up on the same types of issues that reform advocates have hit for decades: Who should pay? Should employers who don’t offer insurance pay a subsidy? Should the aim be to cover everyone?
After much debate, the state’s House and Senate approved a compromise measure Tuesday that included the requirement that everyone carry insurance, but also a $295 per worker annual fee on employers that do not offer coverage, with revenue used to help support the program. Romney has said he supports the compromise.
Talk to folks on various sides of the debate in Illinois, where lawmakers last year approved the All Kids plan, which starts in July. Before, many of those children were left out because their families earned too much for them to qualify for state Medicaid programs.
Under the All Kids plan, Cramer will pay $80 a month, and the boys will be covered. She still won’t have insurance for herself.
Mike Everett, a local business manager for Local 34 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, in Peoria, says the state needs to provide universal coverage.
“I represent a bunch of electricians and construction workers,” says Everett. “We’re just literally going out of business trying to maintain our health insurance.”
The cost of providing insurance to the union worker adds about $5.15 an hour to what contractors must pay for each worker, meaning some are opting to hire less expensive, non-union competition, says Everett.
He says the states need to take action.
“People have given up on anything happening on a national basis,” Everett says.
Business owners don’t want burden
But business owners are wary. While many struggle with the cost of providing insurance, they don’t want to face additional fees or requirements from the state.
“Most of us in business only want one thing from the government: Get out of my life, and don’t put another burden on me,” says Bob Bonifas, CEO of Alarm Detection Systems, which has 210 employees.
He says his Aurora, Ill.-based company spends about $600,000 each year providing health insurance, something he says is vital to attract quality workers. Still, annual premium increases annoy him, and changing plans to get a better price often means his employees have the hassle of changing doctors.
Even with all that, Bonifas says he does not like the idea of a state or national insurance plan for all, even if it meant all he would have to do is pay a fee rather than shop for an insurance plan each year.
“They’re creating socialized medicine,” Bonifas says. “The best system would be one where I — and other employers — give employees a voucher for an amount of money, and they take it and shop the system themselves and buy a plan.”
Another way: High deductibles, tax-free savings
Bonifas’ preference for a market-based approach that relies more on individual initiative rather than government programs. Such thinking represents a second major approach to covering the uninsured.
Along those lines, President Bush and many business and conservative thinkers, such as John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis, promote high-deductible health insurance plans that are coupled with tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs) as one option for helping the uninsured.
Such plans have somewhat lower premiums than more traditional insurance. But the main idea behind them is that people will be more judicious in their use of medical care, because more of their own money is on the line. What they don’t spend, they can save for future medical costs in the tax-free accounts. Critics such as Consumers Union and the Commonwealth Fund fear the high-deductible plans will cause people to skip needed medical care and will place financial burdens on many families.
But supporters say HSAs are a better approach than expanding eligibility in government programs as a way to help the poor, says Goodman.
“The innovation is in the private sector,” says Goodman. “It’s not merely that people want choice. We need creative solutions to problems, and you don’t get that when you have a government monopoly.”
Some states are taking that individual approach.
•Florida last year won federal approval to change its Medicaid program for the poor from one that offered a fixed set of benefits to one that offered recipients a set amount of money so they could buy their own health insurance.
•South Carolina officials are seeking federal approval to allow Medicaid to offer health savings accounts.“People in Medicaid ought to have access to the same insurance as the rest of the population,” says Goodman. “If they are segregated, it will be a poor plan for poor people.”
But relying on a program here or a savings account there — each with different rules about who can qualify — won’t work, says former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber. He is leading an effort to pool the money spent in Oregon on health care for the poor and elderly, plus lost revenue from tax breaks for employers who provide insurance, to offer a basic health plan to all.
In his vision, the nation’s commitment to health care would look a lot more like its promise to offer publicly financed education to all children: “Nobody is left out,” says Kitzhaber, a physician who served as Oregon’s governor from 1995-2003 and successfully challenged federal rules during his governorship to expand the state’s Medicaid system to cover more people.
Kitzhaber says Oregon and other states can lead the way. But, he says, most state efforts are doomed to failure without an overhaul of the current health system, which he says provides health coverage to people based on whether they are lucky enough to have a job with benefits, old enough to qualify for Medicare or poor enough to qualify for state aid.
“We’re challenging the underlying structure of the U.S. health system,” Kitzhaber says.
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Ted Kennedy and Liberal Republican Governer Mitt Romney, who is running for President in ‘08, have teamed up and passed a STATE Mandate that all citizens must pay Blue Cross, it’s tooo disgusting.
I can just see Romney in Ames, IA at the first debate for President in Hilton. Mitt says, “Hey, we have run all the insurance companies out of the state of MA except for Blue Cross which costs an average premium of $400 a month for single coverage. Then we made it manditory that all citizens had to buy that crap. Now I realize that here in Ames a single 30-yr-old male can get HSA qualifying insurance for just $30 a month in a free market with competition. BUT I SWEAR - when I’m President we will run all insurance companies out of every state in America except Blue Cross and raise your premium 10 times as much just for starters. [[[I’m the new type of CONSERVATIVE who has bonded with Ted Kennedy, vote for me if you NEED Socialism]]].”
Code Blue: Mitt’s Presidential Hopes. What a FuckTard
PSSST: Socialism is coming to a state near you.
Posted by Z Woof
04/05/2006 at 09:45 AM
The Peoples’ Demokratik Replubik of Messoftwoshitts is an entity unto itself…
Don’t worry, only those BLUE STATES in the upper NorthEast got all the Blue Cross competitors kicked out under the Clinton Administration. Our HSA insurance company is in 43 states so manditory insurance isn’t coming to your state because Blue Cross failed to outlaw competition.
However, here in Florida Blue Cross says they have 8.2 (m) million people covered and almost 4 million of them are not Government paid. Florida Blue Cross CEO, Bob, says, “There are 17 million people in Florida so there is plenty of room for growth.” What a HozeMonster.
He reminds me of Dan the man from Michigan. The CEO of Blue Cross of MI. Except Dan is smarter and can see the wolf at the door. Dan has 4.7 million Michiganiacs out of only 5 million taxpayers. Hey, wake up peoples
Can’t you see a giant monopoly controlling our politicians, of both Parties, when it’s staring you in the face
This crap in Mass is just the dying floppin’ of a business plan that President Bush has already killed, sliced and diced. The Tax Free HSA is the law of the land and can’t be stopped. The HSA stopped Socialized Medicine dead in it’s tracks. I suggest the CEO’s of Blue Cross, United Health Care and Aetna raise the white flag and fire all of their employees. I pity the shareholders of their stock. It’s a dog eat dog world and it’s TIME the Blue Cross becomes just a thing in the history books, they’re evil. CEO Dan the man said, “It’s got to be a team effort to re-elect Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).” Zandstra, who is going to replace Stabenow, said, “Senator Stabenow is trying to NATIONALIZE health care.”
We need ONE smart Senator in Washington DC
Vote Republican / Vote Zandstra for US Senate
Posted by Z Woof
04/05/2006 at 05:17 PM
