Too bad for the insurance industry that phrase was coined by The Residents, because the evidence shows if they adopted it, it could be truth in advertising (via sphere via Angry Bear):

It's federal law: All seriously injured emergency and trauma patients must be given equal lifesaving care, whether or not they can pay for it. But that's not happening, according to a new report. The study, conducted by Children's Hospital Boston research fellow Dr. Heather Rosen and colleagues from three other hospitals, found that uninsured trauma victims ages 18 to 30 are dying at an annual rate 89 percent higher than insured victims with identically severe injuries.

From the awesome Sweet Juniper, a beautiful story about a local gem.

An excerpt:

"While I wait with my notebook, Roy opens the door for a man in a wheelchair who needs a key made. An elderly woman needs a new rubber stopper for one leg of her walker (75 cents) and Ted treats her like she's a Hollywood starlet in a Rodeo Drive boutique. She puts down a few more dollars in layaway towards the crock pot they're holding for her behind the counter.

Steven D. notes:

"The FBI has a Terror Watch List of 400,000 names on it. Does that seem extreme to you? Because it seems absolutely insane to me."

If only there was someone in charge of this FBI thingy, someone who had the legal authority to do something about it? Perhaps someone who had taken an oath something like this one:

Based on Matt Taibbi's post (Thanks BDBlue!), I thought it would be good to bring up some history. You know, there was at one time this thing people would do, called "protest", and occasionally it had results (however meager and fleeting they might be). But results nonetheless:

Looks like we'll find out soon.

A person briefed on the matter says General Motors Co. is expected to sign a deal to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer as early as Thursday afternoon.

Har.

It's a bust out, quite literally, supported by your bailout dollars:*

"Executives at Schwing said its primary lender, Wells Fargo & Co., began tightening terms a year ago, after its three-year loan agreement with the company expired. At the bank's urging, Schwing paid down its line of credit with the bank to $21 million from about $45 million. Then, about two months ago, Wells Fargo began "sweeping" Schwing's operating account of cash in an effort to reduce its revolving line of credit with the company. Schwing had a 20 year relationship with Wells Fargo.

From the Star Tribune:

"One victim used to sell health insurance.

Another is a retired deputy attorney general.

A third is a 93-year-old woman from West St. Paul.

All three were tricked into buying what they thought were health insurance policies that turned out to be empty promises, according to two lawsuits filed Wednesday by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

Swanson accused two out-of-state companies, Consumer Health Benefits Association and Home Health America LLC, of "scamming Minnesotans citizens."

An excerpt:

"What I always found so frustrating about Ezra - the tendency to repeat, as told to him, political sales jobs for the side he likes, and to rarely look too critically at them - has really only gotten worse. There's no attempt in what passes for "reporting" from him to relate the proposed "reform" scenarios to concrete realities of the current healthcare system, or challenging any of his scenarists

Please, let's be more civil.

At first, I was barely interested in the whole "birther" debate, but now, after the last week's reactions to Obama's bland-as-a-mayonnaise-sandwich-on-enriched-white-bread-with-crust-cut-off sandwich speeches, I've come to a hypothesis I would like to share.

Is it possible that the reaction to Obama (as mainstream, unconfrontational and bland as he is) - in the form that he "deserves no respect as a valid President" - is a logical outcome of the desire by a segment of the political spectrum for a Unitary Executive President?

In this mindset, a legitimate Unitary President is all-powerful and so must be faithfully obeyed. Anything else is treasonous at worst, disloyal at best. For these folks, only if the President is NOT legitimate, can he be freely dissented from. So the only legitimate way for a person who believes in the Unitary Exectuive to dissent from the President is for that person to first not agree that individual is a legitimate President.

Put this down as one more bad legacy of the Cheney administration.

Suck on this A&F.

"A judge ordered retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch to pay $115,000 for discriminating against a 14-year-old autistic customer at its Mall of America store.

The civil penalty, the largest of its kind in at least two years, came four years after store employees refused to let the autistic teen join her older sister in a fitting room because of the clothing chain's anti-shoplifting policy. The store refused to relent even after the sister, and later the girls' mother, explained that the 14-year-old couldn't be alone because of her disability.

The confrontation humiliated the girl, who testified that the incident made her feel like a "misfit.""

As usual Somerby buries the lede:

"What really counts from Congo: Dowd’s column teaches a lesson today in the meaning of “tabloid” journalism. Before pretending to discuss something important, Dowd burns up half her piece with Clinton’s briefly awkward moment. Cable “news” has had a ball with it too. It’s what these imbeciles live for.

I've got your America's politicians: cheap and crooked right here pal. From Paul Jorian's blog), where he makes the larger argument that the system of accounting has been so badly distorted in order to keep zombie banks "solvent" that the economic recovery won't occur until the accounting system is restored to it's previous state (with the infusion of more campaign cash, of course):

Blub, with a side of special birther sauce.

Personally, I want a pony for my birthday.

From commenter Jackybird to Taunter's excellent post:

"I paid for individual insurance for most of twenty years until it became prohibitively expensive. All that time, I always had the sneaking suspicion it was a scam but I was told it was the responisible thing to do. Now I know it was a scam.

The other day Krugman referred to young people who don’t buy insurance as “gaming” the system, or something to that effect. But is it gaming the system to decline to buy into a Ponzi scheme? If you think that the insurance won’t be there when you need it why buy it in the first place?"

Hmmm? Good question!

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Regarding Lambert's previous post regarding the arithmetic of insurance reneging and cancellation (rescission). Yves is right, it's important, it needs to be exposed, and the obfuscation of the math needs to be stripped away. Whenever you see percentages used in an argument, you need to be very clear about what percentage of what is being talked about. In this case, insurance "exec" Don Hamm says:

"Rescission is rare. It affects less than one-half of one percent of people we cover. Yet, it is one of many protections supporting the affordability and viability of individual health insurance in the United States under our current system*."

When you see percentages of percentages (of further more percentages) BEWARE!

In this perfect meritocracy we commoners call America, it's good to see that our most dynamic, enterprising and promising youth can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and, by dint of the shear force of their intellegence, effort, and hard work*, rise to the top.

A little late, but, in the spirit of the times (and spurred by this excellent, excellent post on the old triangulation), the minutemen:

"list monitors arrive with petition

iron-fisted philosophy is your life worth a painting?

is this girl vs. boy with different symbols?

Talk about burying the lead, Harper at Sic Semper Tyrannis does it in spades. In a post first devoted to Dennis Ross's firing by the Clinton State Dept., he notes the following from his inside sources:

From the June 5th letters section of the Star Tribune, a woman tells her story:

"ABORTION DOCTOR SLAIN
A personal story may give a little perspective

Regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the antiabortion zealots would like everyone to think late-term abortions are never performed for a good reason. (The woman's life, health and wellbeing and severe fetal defects are not considered good reasons.)

Perhaps a real-life example will help everyone (at least the decent people) understand this issue.

Andrew McCarthy at Echindne has thrown in the towel.

In the comments (ironically), Andrew fleshes out his reasoning:

"My biggest objection to blogging (as usually practiced) is that the "format" doesn't really allow room for deep thinking. It puts a premium on fast response time and provocative "sound bytes".

Just askin'......

"International investors own about 51 percent of the $6.36 trillion in marketable U.S. government debt outstanding, up from 35 percent in 2000, according to data compiled by the Treasury. "

Via The Green Parrot's blog I found this link where you can learn your "Walk Score", a livability index based on an address' walking distance to those services you regularly need.

This is a fantastic tool. What if people only valued houses by the upper tier of "walk scores" (Of course some already do....)? What would that do for all of those foreclosed property values, which are typically concentrated in urban areas with high walkability numbers?

Nearly every media outlet has had their say on Obama's first 100 days in office. Now it's Correntewire's turn.