Well that's one way to cut costs........

[Peter_Puget]

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

 

Linky

[j_b]

HOW TO FLEECE THE PEONS:

 

Conservative Mogul Buying Up Reporters to Promote His Regressive Agenda

 

By William Greider, The Nation.

 

 

The Wall Street billionaire who wants to loot Social Security [is back]. This time, Pete Peterson has invented his own "news network" to promote his right-wing rants about shrinking the only retirement security system available to millions of working people.

 

[..]

 

The retired mogul has created a digital news agency he dubs "The Fiscal Times" and hired eight seasoned reporters to do the work there. "An impressive group of veteran journalists," Peterson calls them.

 

[...]

 

With his great wealth, Peterson could have also bought a newspaper to publish his dispatches, but he did better than that. He hooked up with the Washington Post, which has agreed to "jointly produce content focusing on the budget and fiscal issues." (This media scandal was first uncovered by economist Dean Baker.) The newspaper is thus compromising its own integrity. It's like buying political propaganda from a Washington lobbyist, then printing it in the news columns as if it was just another news story.

 

[..]

 

The first TFT "dispatch" to appear in the Post -- "Support grows for tackling nation's debt" -- made no mention of Peterson's crusade. But it featured the same devious gimmick the financier has been peddling around Washington. Congress should create a special commission of eighteen senators and representatives empowered to to make the "tough" budget decisions politicians are loathe to face -- slashing benefits, raising payroll taxes or both. Other members of Congress would be prohibited from changing any of the particular measures, and would cast only an up-or-down vote on the entire package, no amendments allowed.

 

Supposedly, this would give them political cover. Look, no hands. We just cut Social Security but it wasn't our fault.

 

[...]

 

The TFT story describes the rising federal deficits as a threat to the republic, yet fails to explain why deficits on rising. The billions have been devoted to bailing out major banks and Peterson's old chums in Wall Street or to turning around the failed economy or fighting two wars at once.

 

So why do the TFT reporters (Elaine Povich and Eric Pianin) zero in on old folks and Social Security or entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid? Because those are Pete Peterson's favorite targets. He has flogged Social Security as a blight on our future for at least twenty years. He is a nut on the subject. His "facts" are wildly distorted or simply not true. Never mind, the establishment press portrays him as a disinterested statesman.

 

This crusade is dangerous for the people because the "respectables" in governing circles and both parties embrace the same reactionary logic. Does government have money problems? Don't restore the progressive income tax on the wealthy or capital, don't cut away some of the corporate boodle in the federal budget -- that politics is too difficult. Instead, let's whack Social Security while folks aren't watching.

 

[...]

 

The biggest lie in Peterson's story-telling is his refusal to acknowledge the looting aspect of what he proposes. Despite his inflamed rhetoric, Social Security is not broke -- it has a huge surplus of around $3 trillion (trillion, not billion). With no changes at all, the trust fund will be solvent for at least another thirty years. In fact, workers retiring now have already paid for their Social Security benefits because they paid higher payroll taxes for the past twenty-five years. I might have a little respect for fiscal crazies like Peterson, Conrad and Gregg if I once heard them state these facts honestly instead of demonizing Social Security recipients.

 

Here is what really worries the fiscal hawks: as the Social Security trust fund built up the huge surpluses, the federal government borrowed the money and spent it. The time is approaching -- maybe ten or twelve years from now -- when the federal treasury will have to start paying back its debts to Social Security. The accumulated wealth does not belong to the US government, any more than the money it borrowed from China. The beneficial owners are all those working people who faithfully paid their FICA taxes for all those years. If Washington stiffs them now, it will be a bait-and-switch swindle larger than Wall Street's.

 

A year ago, the Obama White House was playing footsie with Peterson and intended to give him a starring role in its "fiscal responsibility summit." The Nation disrupted those plans. I wrote a fierce attack on the billionaire's looting scheme and the true fiscal history of Social Security. The sting that really hurt was The Nation's cover -- an unfortunate photograph of Mr. Peterson in which he resembled a Mafia don. The White House abruptly downplayed its summit and dropped Peterson as keynote speaker.

 

But the assault on Society Security, we knew, would come back sooner or later because many of Obama's lieutenants are devoted to Peterson's fiscal logic. Budget director Peter Orszag once co-authored a "reform" plan that would raise the payroll tax on young workers and cut benefits for older people near retirement. Isn't that clever? Pinhead economists evidently think that workers won't notice. Now the billionaire is cranking up another fight. We should finger him again, big-time, and all those who willingly collaborate in his plot.

 

More: Fleecing the peons

[Peter_Puget]

Earth to J_B....put your foil hat back on!

[billcoe]

I went to the Nation to see what was up and this was the first story I read. Good stuff, thought provoking.

 

"Al Sharpton Wants Gilbert Arenas Punished. Seriously.

posted by Dave Zirin on 01/05/2010 @ 12:52pm

 

Whenever racism rears its head in sports, the Reverend Al Sharpton has usually had something important to say. In the process, he has proudly earned the contempt of the sports radio blabbocracy. But today, Reverend Al is earning their praise. Al Sharpton embraced by sports radio? Have we entered the twilight zone? Hardly.

 

They are loving Sharpton because the good Reverend wants Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas severely punished for bringing unloaded guns into his team's locker room. Currently facing criminal charges and league suspension, Arenas is likely facing probation or prison and will be suspended by the NBA. It's a depressing story made worse by the fact that Arenas is perhaps the last player you would ever predict would do something so stupid. The son of a professional movie extra, and the NBA's first blogger, he is an iconoclastic goofball, more likely to bring a water gun to work than the real thing.

 

Gilbert will take severe lumps for this: legally, financially, and professionally. But I never expected Sharpton to pile on and crudely play the reverse-racism card in the process. Sharpton announced to the New York Daily News that he has spoken personally with NBA Commissioner David Stern, urging him to show no mercy. He said that Stern must deal with "the culture of violence being perpetuated in professional sports." But the capper was Sharpton saying:

 

"If it had been a white player pointing a gun at a black player, there would have been much more of an uproar. It's almost as if people are saying, 'Well, we don't expect anything better from our black athletes.'"

 

Where to begin unpacking this drivel? The idea that the media has ignored this story is ridiculous, with the "uproar" reaching deafening proportions. In addition, the notion that NBA players, or black athletes get a "pass" on handgun ownership is beyond idiotic. In gun-crazy America, black athletes are routinely pilloried for legal firearm ownership, as if their post-game hobbies are drive-by shootings and robbing banks. There has never been breathless coverage of NASCAR gun ownership and no one asks golfer Phil Mickelson whether he packs heat.

 

The fact is that there is a profound and historic double standard in this country on the question of gun ownership. White people are celebrated for exercising their 2nd amendment rights. Black people, to put it mildly, are not. Now I am not for a moment saying that gun culture in the NBA isn't a real concern. Devin Harris of the Nets said that he estimated 75% of players have firearms. But when you talk to the players, they don't carry weapons because they want to live some sort of thug life. They actually sound more like members of the NRA. Indiana Pacers guard T.J. Ford said, "As a society, I think a lot of people have protection within their home. But I don't think it's just an NBA thing. It's just a lot of regular people have protection in their home." Knicks guard Larry Hughes also commented, "We're grown men. We protect our families. We protect our homes. Whatever the case may be, whoever is bearing arms, I hope everything is done, you know, legally, but you have that right."

 

While the NRA probably won't be approaching NBA players for their next round of public service announcements, the reasons for ownership are clearly more rooted in personal paranoia than mack-daddy machismo. There have been numerous high profile robberies, assaults, and home invasions of NBA players over the last decade. Players are scared for themselves and their families. Many have taken Stern's advice and hired bodyguards. Others who refuse to do that, see gun ownership as a sensible and logical alternative. Their concerns are serious, and won't be solved by dumping on Gilbert Arenas. Arenas is not the poster child of a "culture of violence." He is a frustrated athlete, playing through his worst season, who did something incredibly dumb. Al Sharpton turning him into Iceberg Slim doesn't make it any easier.

 

If Sharpton was truly concerned about "the culture of violence in sports", he might start by saying something about the league's open partnerships with the Pentagon, the military jet flyovers before football games, and the open armed forces recruitment that is a part of major sports contests. If he was concerned about violence, he could say something about the alarming levels of spousal abuse in sports. And lastly, Sharpton should know that it's the apex of hypocrisy to speak of "the culture of violence in sports" in a nation currently involved in two wars. It's unbelievable to see politicians and their cable news chatterers baying for military intervention in Yemen, willing to sacrifice any number of young men and women, and then taking timeout to pile on Arenas. But that's to be expected. It is unexpected and disheartening to see Sharpton use his considerable platform to be one more voice in the chorus.

 

[Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming "Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love" (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.] "

 

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/512292/al_sharpton_wants_gilbert_arenas_punished_seriously

[j_b]

Dave Zirin is one of the best sport writers around. Sharpton is certainly a loose cannon. I kinda feel sorry for Arenas; he seemed like a nice guy.

 

Earth to J_B....put your foil hat back on!

 

That's rich coming from a McCarthyist who sees socialist/commie conspiracies everywhere. We'll note once again the lack of any argument or substantiation for that ad-hominem.

[billcoe]

I believe that Areans is not guilty of any crime.

 

Back on topic:

 

JB, what do you recommend to cease the red ink? Or is it OK to continue on this part and we can just pay the ever increasing interest on it for the rest of our lives and pass the debt to our children?

[prole]

Earth to J_B....put your foil hat back on!

 

That's rich coming from a McCarthyist who sees socialist/commie conspiracies everywhere. We'll note once again the lack of any argument or substantiation for that ad-hominem.

 

Aw, don't blame him. It was his upbringing.

 

[Peter_Puget]

I believe that Areans is not guilty of any crime.

 

Back on topic:

 

JB, what do you recommend to cease the red ink? Or is it OK to continue on this part and we can just pay the ever increasing interest on it for the rest of our lives and pass the debt to our children?

 

Billcoe -

 

Cost containment can be achieved w/o rationing. Just underpay for services. Here we have medicare covering - services no one is denied - but the damn doctors won't provide care! What nirvana: a plan covering everything with no cost!

[j_b]

May be not guilty of any crime but pulling a gun on someone is pretty wacky.

 

As for your difficult question, and although I am no economist, I believe there are long terms and short term goals that need to be considered. A non-exhaustive list would be: quit paying over 50% of the federal budget toward current and former military adventurism, increase taxation on very high incomes and capital to at least where it was during the Reagan years, a single payer health care that would slash costs, bail out the middle and lower class in the short term while retooling for a sustainable economy also seems to be necessary if we really want to pull most everybody out of this recession while eventually enabling folks to stand on their 2 feet, be done with the economic growth model that relies on consumerism (essentially the only source of growth for the last 30+ years), ...

[Pete_H]

May be not guilty of any crime but pulling a gun on someone is pretty wacky.

 

 

I don't know the whole story but if he pulled a gun on someone, even if it wasn't loaded, it is a crime. Menacing or some shit.

[olyclimber]

the gun laws in Wa DC are so restrictive there is a good chance he did break the law.

[Bug]

"Never pull a gun on anybody you don't fully intend to kill."

Henry Fonda

[tvashtarkatena]

Can we ban the phrase 'ad hominem'? There are crack whores on 90th and Aurora who are fresher.

Edited January 7, 2010 by tvashtarkatena

[prole]

Can we ban the phrase 'ad hominem'? There are crack whores on 90th and Aurora who are fresher.

 

Thanks for the tip.

[Peter_Puget]

Oh yea and as I am sure J_B is well aware the only 2010 impact of the Senate Healthcare Bill is.......

 

drum roll.........

 

Physician Medicare payments decrease 21% effective March 1, 2010

[j_b]

Regressives and the health care lobby did everything possible for 9 month to create a circus of stupidity and obstruction about health care reform, including daily fear-mongering on a grand scale of media propaganda. Now, they pretend to be surprised the bill is full of non-sense. You reap what you sow, assholes.

 

 

 

 

[j_b]

Can we ban the phrase 'ad hominem'? There are crack whores on 90th and Aurora who are fresher.

 

Are you saying your finding the expression not 'fresh' will prevent neanderthals from using ad-hominems? Sounds good to me, if it works.

[Peter_Puget]

Another domino falls...............

[olyclimber]

TOLD YA SO! SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH THAT WOMAN FROM WASILLA!

[billcoe]

May be not guilty of any crime but pulling a gun on someone is pretty wacky.

I was only going with the quote in the story I found on the site you linked JB. It said:

the good Reverend wants Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas severely punished for bringing unloaded guns into his team's locker room.

 

Evidently that wasn't the full story. Makes you wonder how often that happens and may have just happened to you on this thread on other topics.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Another domino falls...............

 

it's a good thing we have b-ho and the dem's in charge to fix our HC system!

[prole]

Another domino falls...............

 

Shoulda gone single payer...

[olyclimber]

if peter was smart he'd be like this guy

 

[video:youtube]H1ZEYC1tZZQ

 

I LOVE IT!!!

[j_b]

PP would look less of an hypocrite if he had denounced Bush and the big pharma lobby when they killed the bill that was to allow the import of cheap prescription drugs from Canada and other places where big pharma doesn't make the laws.

[j_b]

[video:youtube]Yu5-y3-WVIM