- Guest: Professor Muhammad Sahimi, Tehran Bureau. An Iranian. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and NIOC Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The Iranian election results and protests. The opposition candidate lost their own home towns, and the proportion of votes was the same all round country. Ethnic minorities tend to vote for their own if one is in the election. It is a young population, and they were for the opposition. Last week there were huge rallies, mostly young, for the opposition. Huge democratic shift in Iran? It won't be possible to resist the changes, unless the U.S. does something stupid like bombing them to stir up nationalism. Conservatives have been blocking what the young people want. The USA should not accept the elections, but be careful not to come out to strongly or the right wing in Iran will call Mousavi a U.S. agent. Did the EU recognize the result? Not that he knows. Protests, so they have announced an investigation, maybe they will get elections cancelled, but not the result reversed.
- Mitt Romney on TV saying that on the one hand Obama is doing an apology tour, so in Iran the right winger has been elected because they are not accepting the apology. On the other hand he says it looks like there is voter fraud. With health care he says that on the one hand a public health care plan would be unfair competition, and on the other hand it won't work.
- Article: Cool, Refreshing Legislation for Philip Morris, Paul Smalera.
- President Obama's speech to American Medical Association.
- Article: The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care, Atul Gawande.
- Article: Doctors and the Cost of Care.
- Bumper Music: Change, Bart Crow.
- Bumper Music: "A Thing Called Love", Jewel Aken.
- Article: Tokyo tries to fight burglars with flower power: Residents keep an eye out for criminals while watering, caring for plants.
- The Gawande article identifies the single biggest problem, single payer and public option won't address it, the medical culture. In the Mayo Clinic the doctors pool money and take a salary, but not in the example. Surgeons kill more people than drink drivers. The head of one hospital does the right wing talk show.
- The AMA has had lots of calls.
- Chris Dodd. Romney asked, why not have government run everything? The commons; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
- Bumper Music: I'll Go Stepping Too, Emmylou Harris.
- Clip:
Howard Dean: "The other thing is, this co-op thing, this is not a real compromise. This is a Senate problem. This is a fix for the Senate problem, it doesn’t fix the American problem. I think the co-op's a fine idea but it won't work. And I love Kent Conrad, I think he's a great senator, but the co-ops ..."Norah O'Donnell: "He's a Democrat too."
Howard Dean: "He's a Democrat, he's a wonderful human being, and I hope he gets re-elected forever because he's just a great guy, but he’s wrong about this. The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops simply by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it. In the small states like mine and like Senator Conrad’s, you’re never gonna get to the 500,000 number signed up in the co-op that you need to have, for them to have any marketing.
So this is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, and they certainly have never done, look, the Republicans all were against Medicare when we put that in. If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans. We have the votes to do a public health insurance option without a single Republican vote and without the one or two Democrats that have said no, and if that's what we have to do, we've got to do the right thing for the American people, not the political thing for the Senate."
Howard Dean Shoots Down Norah O'Donnell's Republican Talking Points on Health Care. - Some doctors want to make people well, others want to make money. If doctors own medical centers or pharmacies, they profit from referrals and prescriptions.
- Article: Congress Goes After a Real Clunker of a Program, Michelle D. Bernard.
- Book: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776.
- Guest: Carrie Lukas, Vice President for Policy and Economics, Independent Women's Forum. Author, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex, and Feminism". “Cash for Clunkers…more corporate welfare?” Thom mixes it up with Carrie Lukas. Her latest baby is a good sleeper. She and Thom both had 1 out of 3 that were good sleepers.
Michelle D. Bernard's clunker article. Her point is the same as for the home mortgage deduction. Using tax to encourage behavior. Thom's problem with it is that it does not distinguish between American made cars and others. All Prius autos are presold, which is good because of the of miles per gallon, but the profits going to Japan. She said it is confusing who makes what, parts are from all around the world. We should be able to compete, she hates the idea we have to protect. Protecting American jobs. Jobs in imports and exports would go if we put up trade barriers. Thom said the only way a country can get wealthier is by taking things out of ground, selling just moves money around. She says America's standard of living is the highest. She said not just manufacturing, also intellectual. Thom calls inventing thing manufacturing. But we invented transistors, who makes them? etc. Adam Smith's "Wealth Of Nations", wood gains value when it becomes an ax handle. She says the clunkers bill would encourage destruction.
- Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
- Article: Student charged with keeping teachers from grading.
- The Iranian election. The investigation may be a sham, but at least Iranians recognize it and are protesting. No Isvestia in Pravda joke. Iranians know their media is full of BS too, Americans do not realize how selective their media is. 2000 election polls were recalibrated to match the official results, and in 2004 so they stopped doing them.
- Bumper Music: Better Than I Ought To Be, Randy Rogers Band.
- Article: Don Briggs, Umpire, Ejects Crowd During Baseball Game.
- "If you don't like your health coverage or don't have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we're calling a Health Insurance Exchange. This Exchange will allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose a plan that's best for you and your family – just as federal employees can do, from a postal worker to a Member of Congress. You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.
Now, I know there's some concern about a public option. In particular, I understand that you are concerned that today's Medicare rates will be applied broadly in a way that means our cost savings are coming off your backs. These are legitimate concerns, but ones, I believe, that can be overcome. As I stated earlier, the reforms we propose are to reward best practices, focus on patient care, not the current piece-work reimbursement. What we seek is more stability and a health care system on a sound financial footing. And these reforms need to take place regardless of what happens with a public option. With reform, we will ensure that you are being reimbursed in a thoughtful way tied to patient outcomes instead of relying on yearly negotiations about the Sustainable Growth Rate formula that's based on politics and the state of the federal budget in any given year. The alternative is a world where health care costs grow at an unsustainable rate, threatening your reimbursements and the stability of our health care system.
What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I'll be honest. There are countries where a single-payer system may be working. But I believe – and I've even taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief – that it is important for us to build on our traditions here in the United States. So, when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this – they are not telling the truth.
What I am trying to do – and what a public option will help do – is put affordable health care within reach for millions of Americans. And to help ensure that everyone can afford the cost of a health care option in our Exchange, we need to provide assistance to families who need it. That way, there will be no reason at all for anyone to remain uninsured.
"
President Obama's speech to American Medical Association. - Insurance for federal employees, how good senators and federal employees have. Their health company may actually be helpful, because federal employees are such a large base.
- Health is a form of wealth.
- Bumper Music: Out At Sea, Heartless Bastards.
- Why pursue the health care agenda when no real change will come while politicians are in the pockets of big corporations. What has changed is that we have just had an election where the winner got piles of money from the Internet from you and me, the electorate is paying attention. We must have campaign finance reform. The Supreme Court as made it much harder. There are some progressives who got office without being supported by the DCCC.
- A doctor said that Obama told them that he trusted them to do the right thing, focus on caring for patient. Personal responsibility. Mandates. Why can he not trust Americans to pay without a mandate? The mandate affects the market.
- Video: 'Save our CEOs' Teaser for Michael Moore's New Film Hits Theaters!.
"Hi, I’m Michael Moore. Instead of using this time to tell you about my new movie I’d like to take a moment and ask you to join me in helping our fellow Americans. The downturn in the economy has hurt many people, people who have had no choice but to go on government assistance. Yet our welfare agencies can only do so much. That’s why I’m asking you to reach into your pockets right now and lend a hand. Ushers will be coming down the aisles to collect your donations for Citibank, Bank of America, AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and a host of other needy banks and corporations. Won’t you please give generously? Now, I know what you’re thinking - I already gave at the bailout. And I know you did, but even if you’ve given in the past, give some more. It will make you feel… good." - Clip:
KING: "All right, let's move on to the health care debate here in the United States.Chairman Conrad, you have put forward a proposal skeptical of this government option -- number one, skeptical. Number two, you have done the math and don't think the votes are there for it in the United States Senate.
So, you say, let's do what we do in rural America with the electricity cooperatives. ...
"CONRAD: "This really isn't, to me, a matter of right or wrong. This is a matter of, where are the votes in the United States Senate? ...
At the end of the day, nothing advances unless you get 60 votes in the United States Senate. ...
That means you have got to attract some Republicans, as well as holding virtually all the Democrats together.
And that, I don't believe, is possible with the pure public option. I don't think the votes are there. ...
We have got lots of cooperative models around the country that are very successful. And they're membership-owned and membership-controlled, not government-run. But they do provide a nonprofit competitive model for the for-profit insurance companies. That's -- that's the potential of this idea. It appeals to both sides."
KING: "And, Senator Collins, if Senator Conrad can sell that idea, can President Obama get Republican votes here?"
COLLINS: "... I commend Senator Conrad for coming up with this idea. It's far preferable to the government-run plan that has been discussed by the administration. So, this is a possible compromise. I need to know more details. We need to better understand how it would work. But it's certainly better than a Washington-run plan."
PENCE: "If they want government rationing to begin to be introduced into our health care economy in a wider way, the way it's been in Europe and in Canada, then the government-run option is the way, or some new iteration of it, this co-op business we're hearing of this morning."
State Of The Union With John King, June 14, 2009 (full transcript). - Only 25% of doctors belong to the AMA. No group has more. Physicians for a National Health Program. Call Congress, call Conrad.
- Guest: “Labor Segment”: Jonathan Tasini, Executive Director of the Labor Research Association. CEO pay. He has proposed top tax rates. The blog is him and one other, but it is set up as a community blog so set up your own blog there. A President Who Respects A Picket Line: What A Concept. Employee Free Choice Act. People waiting for Franken, but Landrieu is from Wal-Mart territory. voteprogressive.org. Give a dollar for each day Norm Coleman keeps blocking Al Franken. A Deal For SAG--A Prelude To More Strife? There were only hints of his run, he is keeping his lives separate.
- Bumper Music: World Hold On, Bob Sinclar (video).
- Member of the day is DRichards who wins a DVD of the movie Crude Impact that Thom is in (and it was in Sundance over the weekend) for...
Why would the US Chamber NOT want to support US (Local) Business?
US Chamber of Commerce pushes to end ‘Buy American’ rules http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/11/us-chamber-of-commerce-pushes-to-end-buy-american-rules/
- Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. opensecrets.org, Kent Conrad's 2nd and 3rd largest industry lifetime donors are insurance and health. Obama's AMA speech at 56 minutes was just his longest. Blunt, said the naysayers were not telling the truth, Judd Gregg said the public option was a Trojan horse leading to single payer. He said the numbers did not hold up, they are wrong. He got a standing ovation when he spoke of malpractice suits, but groans when said no caps. John Edwards made a living suing doctors. Obama talked about how he would pay for it. The plan is online. Examples. He spoke to them as healers, pulled them in. The CIA briefed a gang of 8 in Congress, the House Democrats want to change that, want all of the Intelligence Committee to be briefed. They want the CIA to keep far more detailed records of the briefings.
