Via the indispensable Ken Silverstein: WellCare Made Campaign Donations As Fraud Committed, Report Says

WellCare Health Plans Inc., its subsidiaries and executives spent $2.4 million on political contributions in the 2004 and 2006 elections, according to an analysis of campaign records by The Associated Press. More than 95 percent of it went to Republicans, who pushed forward a nationally watched plan that funnels more state and federal Medicaid spending than ever through private companies like WellCare, which profit most by providing the least care.

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Montana: Letter to the HelenaIR.com

In presenting his national health care plan, “A Call to Action — Health Reform 2009,” Sen. Max Baucus said, “My door is open and I seek partners with ‘can-do’ spirits and open minds.” Earlier though, in the health care forums he held around Montana, Baucus stated very strongly that a single-payer health care plan “is off the table.”

Believing that the Senator’s “door is open,” I maintain that a single-payer system must be on the table because it can help save our present and future economic well being as a state and nation. ...

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Not so much so far--in Florida, at least.

"... younger voters have shifted heavily toward the Democratic Party during the past four years.

But as yet -- in either Central Florida or the state as a whole -- a surge of younger voters hasn't materialized.

Though a bit more than 10 percent of all voters are younger than 25, fewer than 6 percent of early voters fit that category. Similarly, voters 25 to 34 years old are 14.4 percent of the electorate -- but just 9.5 percent of those who voted early. ..." -- Orlando Sentinal analyses the early voting figures in all of Florida -- Battle for Florida: Blacks turn out in droves, but few young people have voted

District 7 congressional candidates talk about priorities
"I believe we're way past time to have gotten a universal health-care system in place," she said. "It's a human right."

Armitage wants to see a Medicare-for-all system that would give people a choice in primary-care physicians, and still encourage employers to offer private insurance.

According to Armitage, universal health care could save Americans $350 billion a year.

"Thirty-one cents out of every dollar spent on private insurance goes to overhead and profit," she said. "Just 3 cents per dollar of Medicare goes to overhead."

A rematch in N.H. 1st District contest

Shea-Porter has been unwavering in her dedication to getting health care to every American citizen.

"The plan I support is Medicare for all," the incumbent congresswoman said on her campaign Web site. "It is cost effective and the structure is already in place.

"With Medicare, health care is privately delivered," the site says. "This allows the freedom to choose your own doctors."

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One of the joys of reading far right wingnut blogs is the abundant affirmation this activity affords me: I am, after all, a sane and balanced human being and not a barking moonbat. Did you know that Obama's cousin had signed a secret agreement with Kenyan Muslims to institute Sharia law if he was elected President? And that furthermore, Obama himself has signed a secret agreement with US Muslims to make at least 10 changes to the Constitution if he's elected President? Well, maybe you'd heard this, but I hadn't.

Booman alerts us to a primary that is coming up on Aug. 26. Florida 15th is having an open race. We have a genuine liberal running, Steve Blythe on healthcare:

Birthday Party for Medicare 30JUL2008

You are invited to join me, Barabra DeVane, at Congressman Boyd's office at 11AM on Wednesday, July 30 for a birthday party complete with cake and noisemakers (that would be our Healthcare coalition calling for Boyd to sign on to HR 676).

We will celebrate the 43rd birthday of Medicare and ask Congressman Boyd for his support in extending Medicare to All through Universal Single Payer Healthcare--HR 676.

Boyd is very conservative, so they have their work cut out for them.

Democrats for Congress debate

Simpson: Said she supports single-payer healthcare, or H.R. 676, as a candidate who’s been endorsed by the National Progressive Democrats of America. She agreed to be open to other ideas, but added that America should foster the health of its people in addition to addressing the issue of healthcare.

Simpson supports the fourth amendment and the responsible plan to end the war in Iraq.

Gainesville, Florida-- Contact: Mark Piotrowski, markp [@] floridalaborparty [.] org
2008 Alachua County Labor Party Calendar

Thurs., June 19 - National Day of Action Against Insurance Companies. In solidarity with the large anti-Insurance Company demonstrations being planned in San Francisco, ACLP will be joining with brothers and sisters in Jacksonville at BlueCross/Blue Shield.

The “Magic Number” is still 2025, or 2209. But its not 2118.

That’s because, in violation of the DNC charter, a secret meeting was held, and secret votes were taken -- violations of specific Charter “sunshine rules” provisions. A deal was struck among Obama supporters on the committee to completely ignore what is known as the “fair reflection” rule (see note below), and to treat the constituency groups that had provided Hillary Clinton with considerable margins in two states (Hispanic/Latino voters, older voters, women, Jewish voters in Florida, older voters, working class voters, rural voters, and women in Michigan) as “half voters”.

Florida Demands Representation, a grassroots group, has planned a protest at the DNC in Washington DC on May 30 and 31, 2008.

The group is asking the DNC to count the votes and seat the delegates in accordance with the certified January 29 Presidential Primary results.

If you are a Florida resident, please see details in the link below and numbers you can contact for more information. If you are not a Florida resident, and live close to DC, please consider attending. Also, sign one of the petitions, instate or out of state.

If you support other sites, please consider posting this.
FloridaDemandsRepresentation

The Democratic voters of Michigan and Florida are unhappy, or so we read. They, or if you will, their representatives, moved up their primary dates and drew a punishment from the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Since then, what have the voters of Michigan and Florida actually done to try and reverse or repair their problem? Nothing but complain.

Greg Sargent doesn't get it:

Bloomberg News takes a look at what Hillary needs to do to earn a popular vote win, and finds that she basically needs to do the political equivalent of pitching a no-hitter, hitting for the cycle, and pulling an unassisted triple play -- all in one game:

What these geniuses forget is that Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates, but not their votes.

Gene Lyons

Which of these four things should happen to Democratic primary voters in Florida?

1) They should be ignored. Florida's Republican-led state government broke the DNC's rules by moving up the primary date, so fuck the Sunshine State's Dems.

2) Their votes from the original primary day should be counted. While the vote was clouded by a plan/threat not to seat the delegates, voters turned out in big numbers and made their preferences known.

3) They should get a mulligan. The results from a re-vote might be different from the previous vote's, but the cloud of uncertainty will be removed.

4) They should be neutered. Florida gets half its alloted delegates, and they are evenly dispersed across the two candidates, completely nullifying the impact of voters' preferences. (Perhaps, symbolically, two voters — one for each remaining Dem — can show up and cast a ballot, while everyone else who prefers one candidate over the other goes and fucks him/herself.)

The last option is known — according to Silent Patriot at C&L — as "Kos get(ting) it right."

But I still love ya, C&L. And congrats on your well-earned Bloggie!

Note:

Bring the candle over, dear,It's very hard to see
Shine so I can see the screen of battery TV

Lights are out all over from Daytona to the Keys
Line failure's marching through Flor'da.

(to the tune of 'Marching Through Georgia')

Weird story, just breaking now so I suppose some confusion is unavoidable. Massive storms are hitting the northern part of the state, but this outage is in the south, I wasn't kidding about the "Daytona to the Keys" line (although they say the Keys are coming back on. I'd like to see where the southernmost power plant is before I believe this story.)

Another cascade effect at any rate. Reminds me of the one a few years ago where literally a tree branch down on a transmission line knocked out the whole Northeast from Ohio to New York and other places.

Weren't we going to beef up the infrastructure after that? Oh, wait.....

Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalised by their employer for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. Once outside, they dashed for freedom.

When they found sanctuary one recent Sunday morning, all bore the marks of heavy beatings to the head and body. One of the pickers had a nasty, untreated knife wound on his arm. Police would learn later that another man had his hands chained behind his back every night to prevent him escaping, leaving his wrists swollen.

The migrants were not only forced to work in sub-human conditions but mistreated and forced into debt. They were locked up at night and had to pay for sub-standard food. If they took a shower with a garden hose or bucket, it cost them $5.

Their story of slavery and abuse in the fruit fields of sub-tropical Florida threatens to lift the lid on some appalling human rights abuses in America today.

Between December and May, Florida produces virtually the entire US crop of field-grown fresh tomatoes. Fruit picked here in the winter months ends up on the shelves of supermarkets and is also served in the country's top restaurants and in tens of thousands of fast-food outlets.

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It's a shame. It seems that remediation just isn't possible. I mean, they think Katherine "I'm not melting!" Harris belongs in the Senate:

"The die-hard Republican voters, they love her," said Jennifer Duffy, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election newsletter. "They think she got a bum rap in 2000."

Most recently, she was criticized for calling separation of church and state "a lie we have been told," and she angered many by saying: "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."

Well, that's what The Base believes, so no wonder they voted for her.

And part of election 2006 is turning The Base into losers, and making sure everyone understands that:

It must be tough to be liberal and have the temerity to speak out.

The point, though, is that Grapski started spending more and more time at City Hall researching the absentee ballots. At first, he was given free rein to examine them as closely as he pleased. Then he was told he was no longer at liberty to make photocopies. Shortly afterwards, Henderson told him he would be allowed no more than an extra hour to go through the ballot pile, and if he wanted to scrutinize them further he would have to pay the city for the trouble of watching over him as he did so.

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Good news for the long-suffering residents of Florida! They are in a position to save vast amounts of money, time, aggravation from being subjected to campaign ads and answering polling phone calls, and have local news airtime freed up from election coverage to focus on people fallen overboard from cruise ships, eaten by alligators, run away from weddings, and other more significant topics. They can just cancel the next gubernatorial election right now, as the winner has already been declared*:

A reverend who introduced Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist during a breakfast with other pastors Monday said the Lord came to him in a dream two years ago and told him Crist would be the state's next governor.

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