Mel Watt, from NC's 12th district, is leading the charge this time. Coincidentally, I'm sure, Bank of America headquarters is also in his district.

If you disagree with this, I suggest you let Mr. Watt, and anyone who has not cosponsored this bill know.

Bloomberg:

Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who has called for an end to the Federal Reserve, said legislation he introduced to audit monetary policy has been “gutted” while moving toward a possible vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

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That's the title of a recent OpenLeft comment from The Big Hurt. Continuing:

they don't care about bipartisanship

they just use it as a front for their corporate sellouts

What else is there to say?

Insurance premiums for small businesses are being driven higher not just because of an increase in healthcare costs, but also because Wall Street wants higher returns:

The higher premiums at least partly reflect the inexorable rise of medical costs, which is forcing Medicare to raise premiums, too. Health insurance bills are also rising for big employers, but because they have more negotiating clout, their increases are generally not as steep.

Higher medical costs aside, some experts say they think the insurance industry, under pressure from Wall Street, is raising premiums to get ahead of any legislative changes that might reduce their profits.

Now, you might think with health insurance reform pending in Congress, the industry would be concerned about screwing its customers. But you'd be wrong because Washington doesn't run this country, Wall Street does:

“There’s no one out there who hasn’t had to do a mea culpa to Wall Street,” said Sheryl Skolnick, an analyst for Pali Capital who follows the companies. While the industry is particularly vulnerable now in Washington, she said, “it seems like they’re more afraid of Wall Street.”

Are you going?

I can't, but believe me if I could, I would be there. It's hard not to like stuff like this:

The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits. Meanwhile, Americans face shrinking pensions, rising foreclosures and unemployment, state budget cuts, predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees, and sky-high credit card interest rates.

The American people want oversight, accountability and common-sense financial reform NOW. This is the classic David vs. Goliath fight, with Wall Street spending millions and millions on lobbying to defeat reforms that would protect the American people and our economy

Reposting from Ms. Madrak:

http://susiemadrak.com/2009/10/14/17/30/...

I just got off a conference call with Arlen Specter where I asked him why the Democrats don’t talk about the wave of entrepreneurship that would be unleashed if people knew they could leave their jobs, start a business and still get affordable health coverage for themselves and their families.

He was surprised, said it hadn’t occurred to him and wants me to give him names of people who would start their own businesses if they knew they could get affordable insurance.

Go to her post, and talk about your dreams there. I know at least one couple who'd ditch their day jobs and start a restaurant, if it weren't for keeping their family's benefits.

Via McClatchy, this story on surface coal mining. The Feds (more power to them) are considering rescinding the regulation that lets the companies bury streams and valleys under the dirt and rock produced by "mountaintop removal". If you've never seen the aftermath of one of these mining operations, you may have a hard time imagining the terrifying scale of the destruction.

What do you think intelligent alien life would make of us?

I'm a big scifi reader, and I've read countless stories about this question. Seems to me most of the time, writers posit one of two things. Either they would be highly advanced, ethically and morally speaking, because that is a prerequisite to achieving the technology of space travel; or they would be totally predatory, and treat us as we treat "lower" forms of life on this planet. Personally, I'm not excited about the idea that intelligent life would come by for a visit. I'm too embarrassed by our own primitive natures to want to have to explain it to the Vulcans.

This is science fiction thread, so none of that downer stuff about how interstellar travel is impossible or how if other intelligent life is out there we'd have heard it by now. According to this NASA guy, the aliens are already here, btw.

and Texas, which has the most uninsured residents in the country, has kids eight times more likely to go without than Massachusetts.

Those who lack health insurance now are far more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican — the states whose senators and representatives are least likely to support a law to extend coverage.

That would seem to indicate that Republican constituents are the ones who would most benefit from passage of universal health insurance coverage. But an analysis of Congressional districts within those states indicates that those without health insurance are much more likely to live in strongly Democratic Congressional districts. Many of those contain large minority populations with relatively low incomes.

In the Congressional debate now going on, Democrats have generally supported plans aimed at assuring that all Americans have some sort of insurance, while nearly all Republicans have opposed the Democratic bills, raising concerns ranging from cost to worries that providing better health coverage for those who now lack it would diminish coverage for those who have it.

The accompanying graphic divides the states into red states — states that both voted for Senator John McCain in the last presidential election and are represented by two Republican senators — and blue states, which have two Democratic senators and voted for President Obama. The purple states are the ones that split their ballots in the presidential and Senate elections.

Lest you think this is our idea, take a look at what the Texas Observer has to say about health care (and

Obviously, I'm not a member of that curious breed, the "Democratic Strategist," nor do I play one on the teebee, nor do I have an interest in joining the League of Triple-A Democratic Strategists as a way to make it into The Show; and anyhow, if I were any good at strategerizing, somebody would be paying me to do it (Inside Rotisserie Baseball commenters take note).

Then again, because I'm not paid [except for your donations!], I can't ignore the obvious on health care insurance reform, and it seems to me that the "some bill, any bill" that the current Congress is going to emit will have some problems down the line. Among them:

1. Pffft. That deflated feeling, as of air escaping from a tire, will come when people compare the promise of "hope" and "change" to what is actually delivered -- and when (2013). As far at the [a|the] [strong|robust]? public [health insurance]? [option|plan], I still think my "baseline scenario" -- the mandate will force millions to buy junk insurance, bailing out the insurance companies -- is the most likely outcome, and it's not going to play well over time, especially with Obama's youthful base. Then again, we might think that the electoral process has become a stepping stone to lucrative jobs on K Street or on the teebee, and so what we think of as the politics or optics of it all is just not relevant to insiders and wannabe insiders.

I mentioned earlier that many schools had decided not to show, live, the President's address to school children on the first day of his daughters' new school year. Now we're finding out that at least a few of those schools' claims they had no room in the curriculum or the class day for the address were (gasp) truthiness in service of obfuscation. Hat tip to the Lone Star bloggers at WhosPlayin.com who earlier broke the news that Lewisville ISD (outside Dallas) had forbidden teachers to show the speech even if parents could opt out.

Oh, and another Metroplex school that refused to show the speech bused kids to an appearance at Cowboys Stadium -- to see w, naturally. Nothing about this

There's good reporting in Savannah Now on the Chemical Safety Board's report, but this sentence caught my eye:

Safety board investigators speculated Imperial managers were lulled into complacency by a series of "near misses" - explosions and fires that caused no fatalities.

That, said investigation supervisor John Vorderbrueggen, is why Imperial failed "over many years" to effectively control dust explosion hazards. During that period, Vorderbrueggen said, "smaller fires and explosions continued to occur at their plants and other sugar facilities around the country."

Can you imagine? Like Jesse Jackson said: "They work every day." They go into work at factories that are exploding and catching fire routinely because they must. Takes courage, no?

I can't improve on Susie's headline.

Ten Dollars an Hour from Ben Guest on Vimeo. Watch it all.

Via the terrific Interfluidity, this very important post. First, let's look at "vanilla products," in this case for financial services:

Vanilla products would be very popular, which is why they are so threatening. Financial services are an area where markets not only fail due to informational problems, but where participants are very aware of that failure. Consumers know they are at a disadvantage when transacting with banks, and do not believe that reputational constraints or internal controls offer sufficient guarantee of fair-dealing. Status quo financial services should be a classic "lemons" problem*, a no-trade equilibrium. Unfortunately, those models of no-trade equilibria don't take into account that people sometimes really need the products they cannot intelligently buy, and so tolerate large rent extractions if they must in order to transact.

Lambert here. The 30 cents of every health care dollar that goes to health insurance companies is one such rent. "Progressives" believe that such "large rent extractions" are painless, and that we should not only tolerate them, but subsidize them for people who cannot pay. Single payer advocates believe that the extraction is not painless, but pernicious, and that we should abolish it entirely. Since health care insurance reform is the administration's signature domestic initiative, most of us have had our attention focused there. If the focus had been financial reform, a similar conflict would no doubt have played out, with the Neo-Broders seeking to ameliorate and preserve rent extraction by banksters, while the left would have sought to abolish it, through proposals like making banks into regulated public utilities, and so forth.

Dave Johnson blogging the G20 protests:

It appeared that the police might have outnumbered the demonstrators. I have iPhone video which I can try to post that shows just how many police there were, just where I was. One the one hand there were people looking for trouble, who broke lots of windows and threw bricks at the police last night. On the other hand it is highly intimidating and creates an atmosphere where people are afraid to join peaceful protests.

What are the chances that the people throwing bricks were agent provocateurs.

Somehow or another, I've been added to the mailing list of The American Family Association. Can't seem to get off the damned thing, either. So ... I got this "invitation" today for a "webinar". It's all Free!! FREE!!! FREE!!! Supposed to be good training, too.
Here are some of the 24 workshops that you can view:

* How conservatives can win in 2010
* How to deal with vote fraud, the Census, and ACORN
* How to lobby federal legislation & policy
* How to bring youth into the conservative movement
* How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA
* How to understand Islam
* How the media can help us take back America
* How to stop feminist and gay attacks on the military
* How to counter the homosexual movement
* How to stop the entry of illegal aliens and drugs
* How to deal with global warming, cap and trade
* How to stop the killings: pro-life solutions

Y'know, somehow, I'm sure I'm not their target demographic. I don't want conservatives to win in 2010. I think they're a plague on the country.

Vote fraud? Easy fix: elect more and better Democrats. The Census I know from the inside out -- I've worked for three decennial surveys. So any lies they'd want me to swallow would be wasted on moi. ACORN? They helped some friends of mine find affordable housing in '07.

How to lobby? Grab your Congresscritter by the ear, if you can't loom over it like LBJ, and make 'em listen. How to be effective: FUND their OPPONENTS if they don't WORK FOR YOU.

How to bring youth into the conservative movement? For what? Do I want to encourage child abuse?

How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA? Make marriage applicable to loving people, period. Screw DOMA, it's bad law.

How to understand Islam? As what, a bunch of brown-skinned terrorists? No, thanks. It's as much a religion -- and therefore as legit or not -- as your "Christianity," and what I understand about both is people use them as an excuse to bully one another, start wars, steal natural resources, and otherwise misbehave.

How the media can help us take back America? Dude, seriously? With Chuck Norris telling me my US Flag shouldn't fly unless I stain it with tea? Come on, now. That's *help*? Gah.

On the other hand, the media right now lllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrvvves them some Bill-O, Dobson, Dobbs, Limbaugh & Company. So, you know, take them; love them; go somewhere

Here it is, Friday morning, the G20 got underway last night a couple of miles from where I sit, and I ain't seen nothing yet except what's on my computer, unless you count the helicopter that hovered over my neighborhood for an unconscionable length of time day before yesterday.

So I went in search of news this morning, partly to prepare myself for this afternoon's march, partly to have something to share with all of you.

First thing that hits me from McClatchy is a cute little paragraph that reminded me of my disgust the other day at hearing the phrase "G20 wives":

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Swine flu is still a deadly disease, although as a pandemic it's not as virulent as the avian flu. Still, people are trying to sanitize their personal universes in response ...

Hantavirus, which is harder to acquire, isn't getting easier to survive.

The virtual fence along the border isn't going away anytime soon, regardless of its inimical impact on towns, commerce, and the environment -- just like FEMA. How come the teabaggers aren't protesting this wasteful government enterprise, or the $7 billion dollar genuine fence, with its building and maintenance costs, the DHS hasn't scrapped already despite the proof that it won't work and the myriad groups protesting its construction, from California to the Gulf Coast? Oh, I forgot -- this boondoggle helps keep out brown people.... which means, of course, that it's one of those few things the government gets right, according to the Loud Obbs crowd. Unlike clean water and good schools, which like mines and well-drilling for gas and oil, all ought to be as profit-driven as healthcare. Once they hear about Bill Richardson's effort to improve economic conditions for Native American tribes, they'll be wanting the fence to enclose his state, too. Not that my neighbors to the west would be interested, but sometimes I wish I could swap governors with 'em, not to mention Senators.

Jobs are dropping like flies across the Southwest, too, not just in Texas and New Mexico. Take a hard look at what's happening in California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Oh Sonia, Sonia, don't toy with me!

"Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.

Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons," she said. "There could be an argument made that that was the court's error to start with...[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics."..

Reached for comment at his private manor, concerned citizen Charles Montgomery Burns was not amused:

Might not be safe for work... But FUCK IT!

DFH by joeyess

Radio commentator Dylan Ratigan, formerly of Bloomberg among other ultra-respectable outlets:

Last fall was an awakening for me, as it was for many in our country.

And yet, our Congress has yet to open its eyes, much less do anything about it. In fact conditions have never been better for the banks or worse for the rest of us.

Why is this? Who does our Government work for? How much longer will we as Americans tolerate it? And what, if anything, can we do about it?

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and damn if I don't wish he was my Representative. Mine put out a puling little written statement about health care reform asking for more bi-partisanship and swearing never to vote for a government-run program.

Mike Lux

I turned to page A2, and there was a classically cynical Dana Milbank column, trashing a Democratic member's press conference on health care and talking about Democrats trying, "to pick up the pieces of the shattered health care bill."

FAIR.org: The corporate ties between insurers and media companies

At the Washington Post Co., two directors are on the board of insurance conglomerate Berkshire-Hathaway, whose subsidiary General Re sells health reinsurance. In fact, Washington Post director Warren Buffet not only chairs Berkshire-Hathaway’s board, he is the company’s CEO.

Brian Beutler has more over at TPM/DC but here's the money quote:
"Any real change requires the inclusion of a strong public option to promote competition and bring down costs. If a vigorous public option is not included, it would be a major victory for the health insurance industry."
Nancy Pelosi gets it. Does the White House?

The corporate ties between insurers and media companies

A recent FAIR study of nine major media corporations and their major outlets, Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), CBS, Time Warner (CNN, Time), News Corporation (Fox), New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. (Newsweek), Tribune Co. (Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times) and Gannett (USA Today) found connections to six different insurance companies. Five out of the nine media corporations studied shared a director with an insurance company; two insurance companies—Chubb and Berkshire Hathaway—were represented by more than one media corporation director.

Deval Patrick's a Democrat, , and the governor of the state from which the late Senator Ted Kennedy hailed. Monday, he claimed his state had struggled to preserve health care reform's promise for its people while closing holes in its budget. As a result (surprise! surprise!! surprise!!! NOT) services for LEGAL IMMIGRANTS will be cut: hospice care, mental health care, and dental care.