http://weiner.house.gov/news_display.asp...

Weiner just lived up to his name by withdrawing his amendment, which would have substituted single-payer for the House bill favored by Democratic leaders. That coward sickens me right now even more than Obama, Pelosi, Emanuel, Hoyer, and Reid put together.

Les Enragés.org has an interesting challenge up for both the left and right:

Million Can March: Yes We Can!

Welcome to the Unruly Mob and the launching of our Million Can March! This all started with a vague notion that we should do something more than just have a good laugh at the next round of tea parties scheduled for July 4th. I thought that if teabaggers are so afraid of socialism, maybe we could show 'em socialism on a national scale. And what is more socialistic than sharing our food with others. Food banks across the nation are struggling with shortages as increasing demands meet head on with decreasing donations. But bloggers also reach across the nation - and the world - and we could make a real difference for our neighbors and make this a memorable 4th of July.

Lambert, If you read the fine print written everywhere across the media and the intertoobz:

CR: Banks "leaving money on the table 'all day long....'"

Sun, 03/22/2009 - 5:00pm — lambert>

So tell me again how much we're bailing them out for? What they left on the table, too? Confusing!

Everything you need to know about the bailouts...

in 2 short paragraphs. A relatively long post for Atrios. And I'll explain why this is true below. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

What's The Goal?

Others have made this point in various ways, but if the goal is to bail out the banksters and keep the existing too big to fail financial order in place with the same cast of characters in charge, then all of this sounds like a cunning plan.

If the goal was really to get banks lending again they'd be funneling large sums of money to healthy (mostly smaller) financial institutions who actually made sensible choices over the last few years.

Meanwhile a fire sale is going on:

Lenders have become so overwhelmed by the foreclosure crisis that they are starting to unload properties in bulk to investor groups at steep discounts.

Investors then flip the properties for a profit without necessarily improving the home.

For example, a unit of Citigroup, the troubled financial giant, sold a foreclosure in Temecula to an Arizona investment firm for $139,000 when comparable homes in the area were selling for $240,000 to $260,000.

The firm listed the home for $249,000, received multiple offers and the property has entered escrow, said Amber Schlieder, the real estate agent who handled the listing.

Citigroup left a 100 grand on the table. This looks like a great way to abuse the taxpayer even more.

I want to know who they are all selling in bulk to.

Remember who else was buying up the mortgages in bulk?

So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess.

Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide's former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other failed banks, sometimes for pennies on the dollar. They get a piece of what they can collect.

"It has been very successful - very strong," John Lawrence, the company's head of loan servicing, told Mr. Kurland one recent morning in a glass-walled boardroom here at PennyMac's spacious headquarters, opened last year in the same Los Angeles suburb where Countrywide once flourished.

The Treasury has shown a willingness to recklessly toss all of our futures away to keep these "Too Big Failures" operating in their self-entitled comfort zone.

What incentive do the banks have to sell these properties for as much as they can when they can sell them in bulk at a loss to their buddies' companies (or even their own companies) so they can turn a profit on them and doing this knowing the failure bankers can ship off all of the bills for the losses to us? Think about it.

If Geithner were handing these trillions to the smaller more responsible bankers some of us little people would be able to buy these cheap houses... But this way the elite get to keep all of the assets in their greedy hands and have us pay for their gambling addiction failures too. And then they will turn a profit on selling us these properties AGAIN.  Read more…

That is a fact. Now, you may ask "why is this important?"

Leading up to a 2004 visit to Vancouver, Canada, lawyers there sought to have him charged for his criminal behavior resulting in a court decision that reflected the Canadian Attorney General's view that Bush could not be brought up on torture charges at that time because he had diplomatic immunity:

“These charges were properly laid and backed up by powerful evidence. The government didn’t deny that evidence because it couldn’t deny it. Diplomatic immunity is purely procedural. It doesn’t affect the validity of the charges, only whether they can be proceeded with, for the time being, in a foreign court, in this case a Canadian court. Even if Bush has immunity, it’s only temporary and it won’t shield him or anyone in his administration from Canadian law, or any other law, when they leave office. That the Canadian government would try to hush this up by hiding Bush behind diplomatic immunity was only to be expected. Paul Martin invited Bush here to ingratiate himself with the President, despite the President’s crimes against our laws and against international law, despite even his inadmissibility as a war criminal under Canada’s immigration laws – above all, despite the unending human disaster the President’s ‘war of choice’ has brought to the people of Iraq.”

Cut back to 2009, as Bush makes plans to deliver a speech in Calgary, Canada, and this time?  Read more…

In my email inbox from COMA-CT: Another national call in day in support of H.R. 676. But before you do, we all want you to take a minute and dig through your drawers for some of your your insurance papers if you have any. With emphasis on paperwork showing these death dealers denials of service:

So on March 10th, 2009, we will host a deluge of activity in support of HR 676.

We ask that you join with thousands of others to call Congress and fax your health insurance bill or letter of denial to your Congresspersons.

If you don't know your Congresspersons, or want a script and sample fax coversheets, all of the information you need is on our National Call-In Day page.

They have additional information and resources at the Healthcare-NOW! site. And please remember to blank out personal information like your Social Security number. You don't want your activism to result in identity theft.

that they knew about this "crisis" coming down the pike at least as far back as 2003 when they were using that obscure civil war era banking law to block the state lawsuits against the banking institutions. They knew this was all coming and they needed to get legislation in place that would protect the lifestyles of their rich and blameless allies.

"It turns out that one of the features of the 2005 Bankruptcy bill was to put derivative counter parties [like CDS holders] at the front of the line ahead of other creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. Actually, from what I can tell, they don't just go to the head of the line. They got to skip the line entirely. As the Financial Times noted last fall, "the 2005 changes made clear that certain derivatives and financial transactions were exempt from provisions in the bankruptcy code that freeze a failed company's assets until a court decides how to apportion them among creditors."" - Josh Marshall

Legislation like that doesn't just come out of nowhere.

It takes time for them to figure out what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. And then there is the need to find the right time and the right place to slip the junk in.

They could have solved many of these problems years ago and mitigated some of the disastrous results but, instead, they purposefully let it build while protecting themselves and waited for just the right time to unleash the "crisis" on the nation, knowing it would tie the hands of the next administration financially.

IOW: They did manage to drown the government in a Katrina sized bath tub.

This is not a single payer diary, but it does provide insight into some of the problems Doctors face and is worth clicking over to read the entire piece:

Given that 30 out of the top 50 (60%) districts in trouble with foreclosures (34 out of the top 56 listed - 60.7%) are in Republican controlled turf, you might think Republicans would be working harder to save these homes in their own districts. But you would be wrong.   Read more…

Hot off the front page of the burnt orange...

More proof we are a center-right nation from CNN:

Seventy-two percent of those questioned in recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say they favor increasing the federal government's influence over the country's health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans, with 27 percent opposing such a move. Other recent polls show six in 10 think the government should provide health insurance or take responsibility for providing health care to all Americans.

Is it me or is it getting hot in here? Even the media is ratcheting it up a notch.

From my email inbox to you - and a job to be had in D.C., if you are interested:

Last week President Obama spoke to the nation and said he wants healthcare reform within a year! We do too. But we want it done the best way, the simple way, the economical way, the humane way - the HR 676 single-payer way!  Read more…

On Single Payer Healthcare

As a candidate you have promised to treat issues in a truly bipartisan manner. On most issues this has clearly been the case.

Single payer is the one single issue that transcends all politics of the American people and they are almost all (65%) clearly in agreement with.

We all want single payer health care.

In the last couple of years I have seen fundraisers for 4 local people in order to pay for their health care because either their insurance refused to cover legitimate costs or they had absolutely zero coverage.   Read more…

Go look at the pictographs, read the little comments on the sides of them and see if you notice some seriously messed up patterns there? That is the link to the wasted money we dump into our for-profit system, though, they try to justify it as the investment we make in innovation. You kind of have to squint and look sideways at the right side top of the page - under "Related" - to find the links to the next part. But the information there is pretty relevant and paints an accurate depiction of many of the problems with our broken system.

Below is hijacked in its entirety from DrSteveB at dKos:

National Call-In Day for Single-Payer Healthcare

Celebrate Lincoln's birthday by supporting single-payer healthcare.

Thursday, February 12th is the third National Call-In Day to support real universal national health care, single-payer healthcare, HR 676!

Call Congress and the White House. Every call counts!

As noted by DCblogger, and just in case you have not seen it yet...

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, that lightning rod of sociopolitical controversy, continues his provocative cinematic crusade with this incendiary, highly critical examination of the greed fueling America's private enterprise health care system.

  Read more…

Q: Where did some of these incompetent and corrupt bankers spend their time and the banks' money last year?

• an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw "Kelsey and Keely together" and later saw "Aria and Skyler at the same time"
• an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who "l
  

  Read more…

• "I am not a crook!"

Senator Chris Dodd released the details of his Countrywide mortgages. In a statement released with it he said that he would refinance the loans. But, please, pay no attention to this fact:

"Jackie and Chris have "decided to refinance (their) homes", which seems unremarkable, given that they had an ARM that guaranteed their rates for 5 years and the rates re-set last July or so, I gather. Who wouldn't at least try to refinance?"

h/t to ctblogger and greenpeas, with more commentary, videos and documents available at the link.

Via SarahLee, and over at dKos:

First:

Listen to the Thom Hartmann Show on today. During the first hour, Thom will talk with Senator Bernie Sanders, who was a cosponsor of H.R. 676 when he was in the House. During the second and third hours, Thom will talk about how we can get single payer through Congress. And he'll ask everyone to do two things on Friday:

Call Congressman James Clyburn and ask him to whip his colleagues for H.R. 676: (202) 225-3315.

Call your own Congress Member and ask them to cosponsor and promote H.R. 676: (202) 224-3121.

I already gave you plenty of reason to rage against Senator Chris Dodd the other day, after he tried to tell us he wouldn't listen to our very clear message... But now, courtesy of CaptCT, I can give you a million reasons to double down on this industry shill:

Jackie M. Clegg Dodd serves on the board of health care, pharmaceutical, and financial services companies.

Here's a list:

Director , Brookdale Senior Living Incorporated
Brentwood , TN
Sector: HEALTHCARE / Long-Term Care Facilities

Director , Cardiome Pharma Corporation
Vancouver, B.C. , CN

But were you too busy raging too notice the game?

Did Dems pull the health care football, like chicago dyke says, à la Lucy et Chucky Brown? Or did Obama just leave all you Obamabots and Obamaholics your marching orders?

1. Clyburn says the ultimate stupid. A stupid so surreal that not only does it go against what Obama promised, put Daschle in place for, but it also goes goes against H.R. 676 that Clyburn has signed onto in support of.

2. Backlash is unreal. (I am waiting Obamamaniacs... Where is you efin' rage?)

3. Obama and Pelosi (Maybe even the doltish Reid?) statement: We must have single payer NOW! NOW! NOW!

And your state is sure to be suffering:

“Medicaid rolls are surging, by unprecedented rates in some states, as the recession tightens its grip on the economy and Americans lose their employer-sponsored health coverage along with their jobs.” In many states, Medicaid rolls grew by 5 to 10 percent in the last year, often double the growth the previous year. Congress is likely to extend Medicaid aid to states in the upcoming stimulus package.

And, as early as March, Obama will be moving forward on health care reform, according to the Politico:

The move signals Obama’s intent to keep one of the most ambitious and politically crucial campaign promises at the top of his agenda. On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to provide universal health care by the end of his first term, but the severity of the economic downturn has raised doubts about how quickly he can deliver on that promise. Obama and his point person on health care, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have staffed up like they plan to push forward with it, lining up a roster of communications and policy strategists to assist in the effort.

I wrote last week on a Tom Daschle statement that could be taken as a signal of which way Obama wants him to go:  Read more…

What's not to love? I guess if you're allergic to horse hair you might have a problem...

This is a public service announcement to all San Franciso Bay Area bloggers and readers: post debate wrap up and discussion and drowning of ailments at Zeitgeist (Duboce & Valencia) tomorrow 10/16/08.

To all Correntian readers and writers: please think of me as a dude in your creative writing class as opposed to a comrade denouncing you to the central committee.

I devote time to making snarky comments on this blog because I value the intelligence and independence of the readers and writers here.

Bottom line: I would rather have a beverage with you.

[Welcome, Eschatonians! --lambert]

Those of you who have followed my series on home winemaking have read about my Red Currant wine. This year I entered it into the Indiana State Fair International Wine Competition, the first time I've entered any of my wines in competition. And I'm pleased to announce that it won a Silver Medal!

Illegal immigration is a problem for this country.

There, I've said it. But it's not quite the problem some make it out to be:

According to a New York Times article on April 5, 2005, "...the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year....Moreover, the money paid by illegal immigrants and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections."

However, since illegal immigrant workers are here illegally, and ostensibly presented fake ID to the US employer, they will never collect Social Security benefits. "For illegal immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture," reports the New York Times.

The Social Security Administration remains solvent in large part due to deductions taken from the paychecks of illegal immigrant workers, yet Social Security will never pay benefits to those workers. The workers pay in, but they never receive back.

Wouldn't the federal government detect fake Social Security numbers? According to that April 6, 2005 New York Times article, "Starting in the late 1980s, the social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect---sometimes simply fictitious---Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the 'earnings suspense file' in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.

The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990s, two and a half times the amount of the 1980s.

But that's not important right now. Look, a government run solely by business interests will never, ever, do anything to control immigration. Want proof of this, as well as proof of Republican hypocrisy? Here it is:

Recently I added some new contributors over at my place, and I'm constantly thrilled by the quality of what they write.

Sailor, who lives in Rep. Carson's Indiana 7th, wrote this poignant piece today:

To every Right-winger who cheered this war on; to the hawks on the left who seriously thought it was a good idea; to the 101st Fighting Keyboarders who still talk in glowing praise of GWBush's Noble Adventure™ in Nation Building™, I dare you, I DARE YOU, goddamnit, to read the story of James Blake Miller, who became the iconic image of the tough Marine, the brave soldier fighting for democracy, the poster boy for the Neo-con dream, and who, like a real human, paid a terrible price for your blood-soaked fantasies.

From today's LATimes, and the photographer who snapped that image and thus became inextricably joined to Miller, for good and bad: