THE HEALTH CARE STATUS QUO:
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/statehealthreform/tennessee.html
THE HEALTH CARE STATUS QUO:
Why Tennessee Needs Health Reform
Congress and the President are working to enact health care reform legislation that protects what works about health care and fixes what is broken. Tennesseans know that inaction is not an option. Sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets. Millions are paying more for less. Families and businesses in Tennessee deserve better.
TENNESSEANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO
Roughly 3.3 million people in Tennessee get health insurance on the job1, where family premiums average $11,565, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.2
Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 77 percent in Tennessee.3
Household budgets are strained by high costs: 22 percent of middle-income Tennessee families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.4
High costs block access to care: 16 percent of people in Tennessee report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.5
Tennessee businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $900 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.6
AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN TENNESSEE
14 percent of people in Tennessee are uninsured, and 68 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.7
The percent of Tennesseans with employer coverage is declining: from 62 to 54 percent between 2000 and 2007.8
Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 67 percent of Tennessee businesses,9 only 37 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 4 percent since 2000.10
Choice of health insurance is limited in Tennessee. Blue Cross Blue Shield TN alone constitutes 50 percent of the health insurance market share in Tennessee, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 62 percent.11
Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Tennessee, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can even be denied completely.
TENNESSEANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE
The overall quality of care in Tennessee is rated as “Weak.”12
Preventative measures that could keep Tennesseans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:
21 percent of children in Tennessee are obese.13
22 percent of women over the age of 50 in Tennessee have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
41 percent of men over the age of 50 in Tennessee have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
70 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Tennessee have received a flu vaccine in the past year.14
The need for reform in Tennessee and across the country is clear. Tennessee families simply can’t afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans.
1 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State--All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.2 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Expenditure Data," available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.3 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2000, Table II.D.1.Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Expenditure Data," available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.4 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2006.5 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.6 Furnas, B., Harbage, P. (2009). "The Cost Shift from the Uninsured." Center for American Progress.7 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic Supplements, March 2007 and 2008.8 U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State--All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.9 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2006, Table II.A.1a.10 Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component, 2001, 2006, Table II.A.2.11 Health Care for America Now. (2009). "Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market." Health Care for America Now.12 Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. 2007 State Snapshots. Available http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps07/index.jsp.13 Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health.14 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.
Dylan Ratigan And Those Corporate Communists
Representative Grayson Gets It Right
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option
Great article on which legislators are getting PAC money, how much they're getting, and how it affects their votes. Go Nate Silverman!!
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option
PAC Contributions. Based on data downloaded from OpenSecrets.org, a.k.a. the Center for Responsive Politics. Contributions were tallied from two industry codes: F3200 (Accident & Health Insurance) and H3700 (HMO's). Data covers the 2004, 2006 and 2008 and 2010 campaign cycles. The fundraising data is adjusted based on the number of cycles that the senator has participated in as a Congressman (including time spent in the House of Representatives) or as a candidate, where 2010 is treated as 1/8th of a cycle since one quarterly report has so far been filed from the two-year period. So, for example, a senator that ran for and won office in 2006 is treated as participating in 2 1/8th out of a possible 3 1/8th cycles: 2006 as a candidate, and then 2008 and the fractional cycle in 2010 as a senator.
Top recipients of PAC money from these industries since 2004 are as follows:
Senator Cycles PAC $
Baucus (D-MT) 3.125 $141,250
McConnell (R-KY) 3.125 $110,750
Nelson (D-NE) 3.125 $106,123
Kyl (R-AZ) 3.125 $106,000
Gregg (R-NH) 3.125 $103,500
Grassley (R-IA) 3.125 $95,000
Lincoln (D-AR) 3.125 $91,000
Enzi (R-WY) 3.125 $87,000
Chambliss (R-GA) 3.125 $86,750
Ensign (R-NV) 3.125 $85,750
=====
AVERAGE SENATOR $37,267
MUCH more at the link above!
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option
PAC Contributions. Based on data downloaded from OpenSecrets.org, a.k.a. the Center for Responsive Politics. Contributions were tallied from two industry codes: F3200 (Accident & Health Insurance) and H3700 (HMO's). Data covers the 2004, 2006 and 2008 and 2010 campaign cycles. The fundraising data is adjusted based on the number of cycles that the senator has participated in as a Congressman (including time spent in the House of Representatives) or as a candidate, where 2010 is treated as 1/8th of a cycle since one quarterly report has so far been filed from the two-year period. So, for example, a senator that ran for and won office in 2006 is treated as participating in 2 1/8th out of a possible 3 1/8th cycles: 2006 as a candidate, and then 2008 and the fractional cycle in 2010 as a senator.
Top recipients of PAC money from these industries since 2004 are as follows:
Senator Cycles PAC $
Baucus (D-MT) 3.125 $141,250
McConnell (R-KY) 3.125 $110,750
Nelson (D-NE) 3.125 $106,123
Kyl (R-AZ) 3.125 $106,000
Gregg (R-NH) 3.125 $103,500
Grassley (R-IA) 3.125 $95,000
Lincoln (D-AR) 3.125 $91,000
Enzi (R-WY) 3.125 $87,000
Chambliss (R-GA) 3.125 $86,750
Ensign (R-NV) 3.125 $85,750
=====
AVERAGE SENATOR $37,267
MUCH more at the link above!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to Pay | Crooks and Liars
Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to Pay Crooks and Liars
Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to Pay
Posted: 25 Jun 2009 03:00 PM PDT
It's really important to understand that insurers are not to be trusted, especially now that we know they've been defrauding us all along. Former CIGNA communications chief Wendell Potter (watch the complete video here) testified before the Commerce Committee yesterday and summed it up: Don't trust the insurance companies.
Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released today by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
The report was part of a multi-pronged assault on the credibility of private insurers by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). It came at a time when Rockefeller, President Obama and others are seeking to offer a public alternative to private health plans as part of broad health reform legislation. Health insurers are doing everything they can to block the public option.
At a committee hearing today, three health care specialists testified that insurers go to great lengths to avoid responsibility for sick people, use deliberately incomprehensible documents to mislead consumers about their benefits, and sell "junk" policies that fail to cover needed care. Rockefeller said he was exploring "why consumers get such a raw deal from their insurance companies."
The star witness at the hearing was a former public relations executive for major health insurers whose testimony boiled down to this: Don't trust the insurers.
"The industry and its backers are using fear tactics, as they did in 1994, to tar a transparent and accountable -- publicly accountable -- health care option," said Wendell Potter, who until early last year was vice president for corporate communications at the big insurer CIGNA.
Potter said he worries "that the industry's charm offensive, which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns, may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."
Insurers make paperwork confusing because "they realize that people will just simply give up and not pursue it" if they think they have been shortchanged, Potter said.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) questioned the government's ability make matters clearer, saying federal regulation of mortgage disclosures have made the documents borrowers encounter in real estate transactions "hopelessly complicated."
Asked to address the hearing testimony, Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, said insurers have proposed "overhauling the market rules and enacting new consumer protections so nobody is left out, simplifying health care choices for individuals and small businesses, and reforming the delivery system to improve the quality and affordability of health care coverage."
The report released today alleged that insurers have systematically underpaid for so-called out-of-network care. The issue had been brought to light previously in litigation, committee hearings, and other investigations, including a probe by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. But as politicians and interests groups clash over the current effort to overhaul the nation's health care system, it took on new relevance.
Cuomo described it last year as "a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reimbursement rates."
Many Americans pay higher premiums for the freedom to go outside an insurer's network of doctors and hospitals. When they do, insurers typically pay a percentage of what they call the "usual and customary" rates for the services. How insurers determine the usual rates had long been opaque to consumers and difficult if not impossible for them to challenge.
As it turns out, insurers typically used numbers from Ingenix Inc., which was a wholly owned subsidiary of the big insurer UnitedHealth Group. Ingenix had an incentive to produce benchmarks that low-balled usual and customary rates and shifted costs from insurers to their customers, the report said.
Ingenix got all of its data from the same insurers that bought its benchmark information, the report said. Insurers that contributed data to Ingenix often "scrubbed" their data to remove high charges, and Ingenix further manipulated the numbers, removing valid high charges from its calculations, the report said.
Cuomo found that insurers under-reimbursed New York consumers by up to 28 percent, the report said. A dozen insurers have reached settlements agreeing to change their practices; UnitedHealth agreed to the largest payment, $50 million, which will help a nonprofit organization set up a new database to replace Ingenix.
In March testimony to Rockefeller's committee, UnitedHealth chief executive Stephen J. Hemsley said UnitedHealth stands by "the integrity of the Ingenix data."
Ingenix performed an important function, Hemsley said, because paying whatever doctors charge "is simply not economically tenable."
Senate Report: Insurers Charged 'Billions' to Consumers They Were Supposed to Pay
Posted: 25 Jun 2009 03:00 PM PDT
It's really important to understand that insurers are not to be trusted, especially now that we know they've been defrauding us all along. Former CIGNA communications chief Wendell Potter (watch the complete video here) testified before the Commerce Committee yesterday and summed it up: Don't trust the insurance companies.
Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released today by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
The report was part of a multi-pronged assault on the credibility of private insurers by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.). It came at a time when Rockefeller, President Obama and others are seeking to offer a public alternative to private health plans as part of broad health reform legislation. Health insurers are doing everything they can to block the public option.
At a committee hearing today, three health care specialists testified that insurers go to great lengths to avoid responsibility for sick people, use deliberately incomprehensible documents to mislead consumers about their benefits, and sell "junk" policies that fail to cover needed care. Rockefeller said he was exploring "why consumers get such a raw deal from their insurance companies."
The star witness at the hearing was a former public relations executive for major health insurers whose testimony boiled down to this: Don't trust the insurers.
"The industry and its backers are using fear tactics, as they did in 1994, to tar a transparent and accountable -- publicly accountable -- health care option," said Wendell Potter, who until early last year was vice president for corporate communications at the big insurer CIGNA.
Potter said he worries "that the industry's charm offensive, which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns, may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."
Insurers make paperwork confusing because "they realize that people will just simply give up and not pursue it" if they think they have been shortchanged, Potter said.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) questioned the government's ability make matters clearer, saying federal regulation of mortgage disclosures have made the documents borrowers encounter in real estate transactions "hopelessly complicated."
Asked to address the hearing testimony, Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, said insurers have proposed "overhauling the market rules and enacting new consumer protections so nobody is left out, simplifying health care choices for individuals and small businesses, and reforming the delivery system to improve the quality and affordability of health care coverage."
The report released today alleged that insurers have systematically underpaid for so-called out-of-network care. The issue had been brought to light previously in litigation, committee hearings, and other investigations, including a probe by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. But as politicians and interests groups clash over the current effort to overhaul the nation's health care system, it took on new relevance.
Cuomo described it last year as "a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reimbursement rates."
Many Americans pay higher premiums for the freedom to go outside an insurer's network of doctors and hospitals. When they do, insurers typically pay a percentage of what they call the "usual and customary" rates for the services. How insurers determine the usual rates had long been opaque to consumers and difficult if not impossible for them to challenge.
As it turns out, insurers typically used numbers from Ingenix Inc., which was a wholly owned subsidiary of the big insurer UnitedHealth Group. Ingenix had an incentive to produce benchmarks that low-balled usual and customary rates and shifted costs from insurers to their customers, the report said.
Ingenix got all of its data from the same insurers that bought its benchmark information, the report said. Insurers that contributed data to Ingenix often "scrubbed" their data to remove high charges, and Ingenix further manipulated the numbers, removing valid high charges from its calculations, the report said.
Cuomo found that insurers under-reimbursed New York consumers by up to 28 percent, the report said. A dozen insurers have reached settlements agreeing to change their practices; UnitedHealth agreed to the largest payment, $50 million, which will help a nonprofit organization set up a new database to replace Ingenix.
In March testimony to Rockefeller's committee, UnitedHealth chief executive Stephen J. Hemsley said UnitedHealth stands by "the integrity of the Ingenix data."
Ingenix performed an important function, Hemsley said, because paying whatever doctors charge "is simply not economically tenable."
How Insurance Companies Hurt Policyholders - ABC News
How Insurance Companies Hurt Policyholders - ABC News
Health Insurance Insider: 'They Dump the Sick'
Retired Health Insurance Executive Blows the Whistle on His Former Industry
By ALICE GOMSTYN ABC News Business UnitJune 24, 2009
Frustrated Americans have long complained that their insurance companies valued the all-mighty buck over their health care. Today, a retired insurance executive confirmed their suspicions, arguing that the industry that once employed him regularly rips off its policyholders.
Retired health insurance executive Wendell Potter told Congress today that insurance companies routinely rip off customers.(ABC News Photo Illustration)
"[T]hey confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors," former Cigna senior executive Wendell Potter said during a hearing on health insurance today before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Potter, who has more than 20 years of experience working in public relations for insurance companies Cigna and Humana, said companies routinely drop seriously ill policyholders so they can meet "Wall Street's relentless profit expectations."
"They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment," Potter said. "…(D)umping a small number of enrollees can have a big effect on the bottom line."
Small businesses, in particular, he said, have had trouble maintaining their employee health insurance coverage, he said.
"All it takes is one illness or accident among employees at a small business to prompt an insurance company to hike the next year's premiums so high that the employer has to cut benefits, shop for another carrier, or stop offering coverage altogether," he said.
Potter also faulted insurance companies for being misleading both in advertising their policies to new customers and in communicating with existing policyholders.
More and more people, he said, are falling victim to "deceptive marketing practices" that encourage them to buy "what essentially is fake insurance," policies with high costs but surprisingly limited benefits.
Insurance companies continue to mislead consumers through "explanation of benefits" documents that note what payments the insurance company made and what's left for consumers to pay out of pocket, Potter said.
The documents, he said, are "notoriously incomprehensible."
"Insurers know that policyholders are so baffled by those notices they usually just ignore them or throw them away. And that's exactly the point," he said. "If they were more understandable, more consumers might realize that they are being ripped off."
More at the link above.
Health Insurance Insider: 'They Dump the Sick'
Retired Health Insurance Executive Blows the Whistle on His Former Industry
By ALICE GOMSTYN ABC News Business UnitJune 24, 2009
Frustrated Americans have long complained that their insurance companies valued the all-mighty buck over their health care. Today, a retired insurance executive confirmed their suspicions, arguing that the industry that once employed him regularly rips off its policyholders.
Retired health insurance executive Wendell Potter told Congress today that insurance companies routinely rip off customers.(ABC News Photo Illustration)
"[T]hey confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors," former Cigna senior executive Wendell Potter said during a hearing on health insurance today before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Potter, who has more than 20 years of experience working in public relations for insurance companies Cigna and Humana, said companies routinely drop seriously ill policyholders so they can meet "Wall Street's relentless profit expectations."
"They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment," Potter said. "…(D)umping a small number of enrollees can have a big effect on the bottom line."
Small businesses, in particular, he said, have had trouble maintaining their employee health insurance coverage, he said.
"All it takes is one illness or accident among employees at a small business to prompt an insurance company to hike the next year's premiums so high that the employer has to cut benefits, shop for another carrier, or stop offering coverage altogether," he said.
Potter also faulted insurance companies for being misleading both in advertising their policies to new customers and in communicating with existing policyholders.
More and more people, he said, are falling victim to "deceptive marketing practices" that encourage them to buy "what essentially is fake insurance," policies with high costs but surprisingly limited benefits.
Insurance companies continue to mislead consumers through "explanation of benefits" documents that note what payments the insurance company made and what's left for consumers to pay out of pocket, Potter said.
The documents, he said, are "notoriously incomprehensible."
"Insurers know that policyholders are so baffled by those notices they usually just ignore them or throw them away. And that's exactly the point," he said. "If they were more understandable, more consumers might realize that they are being ripped off."
More at the link above.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Jeff Biggers
Author, The United States of Appalachia
Posted: June 23, 2009 01:14 PM
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Updated:VIDEO: Nonviolent Goldman Prize Winner Attacked by Massey Supporter: 94-Year-Old Hechler, Hannah, Hansen Arrested at Coal River
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huffington_post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/live-at-coal-river-daryl_b_219628.html
Note: This blog will be updated during the day, with dispatches, video and photos being filed with Stephanie Pistello from the nonviolent march against mountaintop removal in the Coal River Valley, West Virginia.)
"When I get to the other side, I shall tell God Almighty about West Virginia!" -- Mother Jones
"The abuse of the land always goes hand in hand with the abuse of the people." -- Don West
UPDATE: "The Sword of Damocles hangs over Marsh Fork Elementary School."
"I started out an as activist, but founded it necessary to be a hell raiser. We are going to need hellraisers to stop this devastating practice."--Ken Hechler
Video of former US Representative Ken Hechler (D-WV), who introduced the first bill to end mountaintop removal and stripmining in 1971. As a hero to coal miners, Hechler led the campaign for better mining workplace safety and black lung laws and compensation. The 94-year-old Hechler was arrested at the Coal River action, along with coalfield residents and parents, 88-year-old West Virginia activist Winnie Fox, Daryl Hannah, and James Hansen, and Goldman Prize Award winner Judy Bonds, RAN director Michael Brune and many others.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thank you Senator Burchett
This letter was just posted at and I thought more people needed to know who stands for the people of Tennessee to have open and honest elections.
Comment by Dixie Damm 41 minutes ago
Regarding the Voter Confidence Act [and its antonym HB 0614]…this is a wonderful letter – long but wonderful- written by Bernie Ellis. Mr. Ellis can be thanked at tracevu@bellsouth.net (TN Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations). I sent part of this letter to my very Republican senator, Randy McNally, and said how sad that I could not compliment his decision, as I did in a letter to Senator Tim Burchett.
Hope you feel the pride I did as I read Bernie's words below....dixie from Loudon Co.
(Senator Burchett -- I am submitting this tribute to the Knoxville papers. I do hope they print it.----
-Every Tennessee school child learns early on that our state has been blessed with heros throughout its history. Davy Crockett at the Alamo, Alvin York in the trenches of World War I Europe – we continue to revere the honorable people who sprang from our hills and hollows with the in-borne courage to do the next right thing when they were called on to do so. There are three other heros – two long-gone now and one who is still very much alive – who helped expand our franchise and, in the process, helped save our democracy. The two deceased heros were Harry Burn and Ben West. The third hero, the one who still walks among us, is Senator Tim Burchett of Knoxville.
Harry Burn was a first-term Republican state representative from McMinn county, the youngest Tennessee state legislator serving in 1920 when women's suffrage hung in the balance in our state. Back then, only one state was needed to ratify the Nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution, an amendment that would give women the right to vote. Like many legislators at the time, Representative Burn was under extreme pressure from sexist politicians back home to oppose the amendment, to keep women "in their place". Some even believed that Rep. Burn was a safe bet to vote against suffrage, since he wore a red rose on his lapel, a color then (and now) that represented exclusion and disenfranchisement. But as the pivotal vote approached, the opponents of inclusion did not know that Representative Burn carried in his coat pocket a letter from his widowed mother urging him to vote for ratification. When his name was called, Harry Burn voted "yes", the single deciding vote that ratified – for our entire nation – the Nineteenth Amendment.
Ben West was the Mayor of Nashville in 1960, when Black college students began a series of lunch-counter sit-ins in segregated department stores that were just among the many pillars of the Jim Crow South. For months, those students had been arrested and hauled off to jail. As a result, the Black community had boycotted Nashville stores and Whites had also stayed away, crippling the downtown Nashville economy. Tensions had risen to the point where the home and church of Reverend Alexander Looby, a civil rights leader, had been bombed, sending him to the hospital. Responding to that violence, thousands of Nashvillians marched to City Hall where Mayor West met them. One young Fisk student, Diane Nash, spoke quietly that day to Mayor West and pleaded with him to use the prestige of his office to end racial segregation. Mayor West's response was simple and direct: "Yes, young lady, I will do that." Years later, Ben West said that, at that moment, he had said the only thing that any moral person could say – that he had answered as a God-fearing man, and not as a politician. The next day, the Nashville Banner's headline said it all "INTEGRATE COUNTERS – MAYOR". Within a month, all Nashville lunch-counters were integrated and, with that positive role-model in the heart of the South, Jim Crow's racist days were numbered.
That brings us to Senator Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican and the bravest and most patriotic man I know in our fair state today. For the past three years, Tennessee voters have been working hard to correct a serious error in how we conduct our elections here. In 2006, Tennessee wasted over $30 million in federal funds to purchase touch-screen voting machines (also called Direct Record Electronic machines, or DREs), voting machines that are slow, expensive and – worst of all – incapable of being audited or recounted. These machines have been implicated in a plethora of election fraud incidents across our country, and state after state has made the decision to ban these machines in favor of paper ballots. Tennessee was one of those states when we passed the TN Voter Confidence Act last year on a 92-3 vote in our House and a 32-0 vote in our Senate to replace those non-verifiable machines with paper ballots by the 2010 elections.
But when the Republican Party unexpectedly took control of our state legislature in 2008, one of the first things their leaders announced was that they intended to weaken, delay or repeal the Voter Confidence Act. For the past five months, a small band of Tennessee voters has traveled daily to our legislature and has witnessed a highly partisan and divided legislature, with most Democrats in favor of implementing the Voter Confidence Act as intended and most Republicans in favor of our continuing to vote on insecure and untrustworthy DREs. Since Republicans now control our General Assembly (for the first time since Reconstruction), we knew that the prospects for protecting our franchise were in peril.
Yesterday evening, as our Senate debated long and hard about a bill to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012 and to gut the law's election audit provisions, it was clear that the vote would be close and split along party lines. When the final vote was cast, the tally was 16-14 to delay democracy by postponing the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012. At first, we were crest-fallen, thinking that we had lost. But then one of us remembered that it takes 17 votes in the Senate for a law to pass, and with only 16 votes, the measure had failed. When we looked up at the vote board, we could see that all Democrats had voted to keep the Voter Confidence Act on-track for 2010 (except one, who had abstained) and all Republicans had voted to delay and weaken democracy. All of them, that is, except one. Senator Tim Burchett, a man who has been steadfast and vocal in his support for free, fair and verifiable elections for the past three years; and whose singular vote last night in opposition to the rest of his party allowed democracy to prevail in our state.
Thank you, Senator Burchett. Your intelligence, courage and sense of honor and fairness are what this country was built on, and what we must have in order for this nation to survive. Like Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird", your singular bravery has helped keep us free. And like the Black citizens who filled the courtroom gallery in that long-ago movie, I will, from this day forward, stand up when you enter a room. Because I will know that I am in the presence of a modern-day patriot, the latest in a long line of American heros who sprang from the hills of our Tennessee when they were needed to help keep our nation strong and safe -- and free. Yesterday, you saved our democracy.
Bernie Ellis, OrganizerGathering To Save Our Democracy
Comment by Dixie Damm 41 minutes ago
Regarding the Voter Confidence Act [and its antonym HB 0614]…this is a wonderful letter – long but wonderful- written by Bernie Ellis. Mr. Ellis can be thanked at tracevu@bellsouth.net (TN Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations). I sent part of this letter to my very Republican senator, Randy McNally, and said how sad that I could not compliment his decision, as I did in a letter to Senator Tim Burchett.
Hope you feel the pride I did as I read Bernie's words below....dixie from Loudon Co.
(Senator Burchett -- I am submitting this tribute to the Knoxville papers. I do hope they print it.----
-Every Tennessee school child learns early on that our state has been blessed with heros throughout its history. Davy Crockett at the Alamo, Alvin York in the trenches of World War I Europe – we continue to revere the honorable people who sprang from our hills and hollows with the in-borne courage to do the next right thing when they were called on to do so. There are three other heros – two long-gone now and one who is still very much alive – who helped expand our franchise and, in the process, helped save our democracy. The two deceased heros were Harry Burn and Ben West. The third hero, the one who still walks among us, is Senator Tim Burchett of Knoxville.
Harry Burn was a first-term Republican state representative from McMinn county, the youngest Tennessee state legislator serving in 1920 when women's suffrage hung in the balance in our state. Back then, only one state was needed to ratify the Nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution, an amendment that would give women the right to vote. Like many legislators at the time, Representative Burn was under extreme pressure from sexist politicians back home to oppose the amendment, to keep women "in their place". Some even believed that Rep. Burn was a safe bet to vote against suffrage, since he wore a red rose on his lapel, a color then (and now) that represented exclusion and disenfranchisement. But as the pivotal vote approached, the opponents of inclusion did not know that Representative Burn carried in his coat pocket a letter from his widowed mother urging him to vote for ratification. When his name was called, Harry Burn voted "yes", the single deciding vote that ratified – for our entire nation – the Nineteenth Amendment.
Ben West was the Mayor of Nashville in 1960, when Black college students began a series of lunch-counter sit-ins in segregated department stores that were just among the many pillars of the Jim Crow South. For months, those students had been arrested and hauled off to jail. As a result, the Black community had boycotted Nashville stores and Whites had also stayed away, crippling the downtown Nashville economy. Tensions had risen to the point where the home and church of Reverend Alexander Looby, a civil rights leader, had been bombed, sending him to the hospital. Responding to that violence, thousands of Nashvillians marched to City Hall where Mayor West met them. One young Fisk student, Diane Nash, spoke quietly that day to Mayor West and pleaded with him to use the prestige of his office to end racial segregation. Mayor West's response was simple and direct: "Yes, young lady, I will do that." Years later, Ben West said that, at that moment, he had said the only thing that any moral person could say – that he had answered as a God-fearing man, and not as a politician. The next day, the Nashville Banner's headline said it all "INTEGRATE COUNTERS – MAYOR". Within a month, all Nashville lunch-counters were integrated and, with that positive role-model in the heart of the South, Jim Crow's racist days were numbered.
That brings us to Senator Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican and the bravest and most patriotic man I know in our fair state today. For the past three years, Tennessee voters have been working hard to correct a serious error in how we conduct our elections here. In 2006, Tennessee wasted over $30 million in federal funds to purchase touch-screen voting machines (also called Direct Record Electronic machines, or DREs), voting machines that are slow, expensive and – worst of all – incapable of being audited or recounted. These machines have been implicated in a plethora of election fraud incidents across our country, and state after state has made the decision to ban these machines in favor of paper ballots. Tennessee was one of those states when we passed the TN Voter Confidence Act last year on a 92-3 vote in our House and a 32-0 vote in our Senate to replace those non-verifiable machines with paper ballots by the 2010 elections.
But when the Republican Party unexpectedly took control of our state legislature in 2008, one of the first things their leaders announced was that they intended to weaken, delay or repeal the Voter Confidence Act. For the past five months, a small band of Tennessee voters has traveled daily to our legislature and has witnessed a highly partisan and divided legislature, with most Democrats in favor of implementing the Voter Confidence Act as intended and most Republicans in favor of our continuing to vote on insecure and untrustworthy DREs. Since Republicans now control our General Assembly (for the first time since Reconstruction), we knew that the prospects for protecting our franchise were in peril.
Yesterday evening, as our Senate debated long and hard about a bill to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012 and to gut the law's election audit provisions, it was clear that the vote would be close and split along party lines. When the final vote was cast, the tally was 16-14 to delay democracy by postponing the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012. At first, we were crest-fallen, thinking that we had lost. But then one of us remembered that it takes 17 votes in the Senate for a law to pass, and with only 16 votes, the measure had failed. When we looked up at the vote board, we could see that all Democrats had voted to keep the Voter Confidence Act on-track for 2010 (except one, who had abstained) and all Republicans had voted to delay and weaken democracy. All of them, that is, except one. Senator Tim Burchett, a man who has been steadfast and vocal in his support for free, fair and verifiable elections for the past three years; and whose singular vote last night in opposition to the rest of his party allowed democracy to prevail in our state.
Thank you, Senator Burchett. Your intelligence, courage and sense of honor and fairness are what this country was built on, and what we must have in order for this nation to survive. Like Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird", your singular bravery has helped keep us free. And like the Black citizens who filled the courtroom gallery in that long-ago movie, I will, from this day forward, stand up when you enter a room. Because I will know that I am in the presence of a modern-day patriot, the latest in a long line of American heros who sprang from the hills of our Tennessee when they were needed to help keep our nation strong and safe -- and free. Yesterday, you saved our democracy.
Bernie Ellis, OrganizerGathering To Save Our Democracy
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed | Politics | AlterNet
Remember the GOP screaming about ACORN and voter fraud? Remember how that was their battle cry and they never bothered to even tell the truth about it? Well, well.....
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed Politics AlterNet
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed
Posted by Jill Hussein C., Brilliant at Breakfast at 7:00 AM on June 19, 2009.
Acorn, hunh?
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed
It's worth listening to right-wingers in the media and in government, if only because when you hear them decry something, whether it's marital infidelity, gay sex, fraudulent voter registration, Obama Administration intrusion into people's lives, or anything else, they're actually talking about themselves.
Remember last fall, when ACORN was the new gay, or the new feminist, or the new Islamic terrorist, or whatever the wingnuts' boogeyman-of-the-month is? Remember the "concern" on the right about people being registered to vote who weren't eligible?
Well, well, well...take a look at what's happened in California, courtesy of Brad Friedman:
What's perhaps most interesting here is what isn't mentioned in this story, as written on the Los Angeles Times' "L.A. Now" blog. First, here's their entire blog item...
The owner of a voter-registration company pleaded guilty Tuesday to voter-registration fraud, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Laguna Beach resident Mark Jacoby, who collects signatures for petition drives, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to three years' probation and 30 days of service with the California Department of Transportation.
Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, registered to vote at Los Angeles addresses that were not his own. State law requires petition circulators to be qualified voters. Jacoby will also be required to show proof he is registered at his correct address.
And what they didn't bother to mention in that story?...Amongst other things, the fact that Jacoby and Young Political Majors were hired by the California Republican Party to head up their voter registration efforts in the state. Jacoby had been arrested for Voter Registration Fraud last October, smack dab during the media's orgasmic heights of last year's phony GOP ACORN "Voter Fraud" hoax, even as Fox "News" (and the other news outlets who similarly fell for the scam) were going wall-to-wall with their unsupported insinuations about voter fraud by ACORN, Democrats and Obama.
The news about the arrest of Jacoby, at the time, had occurred just as I was heading out for an appearance on Fox "News", so I was able to break the news on-air in my own "Fox 'News' Alert". (Video originally posted here, reposted at bottom of this item.)
Given the way the LA Times blog "covered" the story of Jacoby's plea --- not even mentioning the fact that this guy and his group were hired by the California state Republican Party --- I'd say it's a fair bet Fox wouldn't even have bothered to mention the original arrest at all had I not been on air and forcing them to do so myself. Much as they are unlikely to bother reporting Jacoby's plea today.
More here.
It's worth listening to right-wingers in the media and in government, if only because when you hear them decry something, whether it's marital infidelity, gay sex, fraudulent voter registration, Obama Administration intrusion into people's lives, or anything else, they're actually talking about themselves.
Tagged as: voter fraud
Jill Hussein C. blogs at Brilliant at Breakfast.
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed Politics AlterNet
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed
Posted by Jill Hussein C., Brilliant at Breakfast at 7:00 AM on June 19, 2009.
Acorn, hunh?
The Big "Leftist Voter Fraud" Lie Exposed
It's worth listening to right-wingers in the media and in government, if only because when you hear them decry something, whether it's marital infidelity, gay sex, fraudulent voter registration, Obama Administration intrusion into people's lives, or anything else, they're actually talking about themselves.
Remember last fall, when ACORN was the new gay, or the new feminist, or the new Islamic terrorist, or whatever the wingnuts' boogeyman-of-the-month is? Remember the "concern" on the right about people being registered to vote who weren't eligible?
Well, well, well...take a look at what's happened in California, courtesy of Brad Friedman:
What's perhaps most interesting here is what isn't mentioned in this story, as written on the Los Angeles Times' "L.A. Now" blog. First, here's their entire blog item...
The owner of a voter-registration company pleaded guilty Tuesday to voter-registration fraud, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Laguna Beach resident Mark Jacoby, who collects signatures for petition drives, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to three years' probation and 30 days of service with the California Department of Transportation.
Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, registered to vote at Los Angeles addresses that were not his own. State law requires petition circulators to be qualified voters. Jacoby will also be required to show proof he is registered at his correct address.
And what they didn't bother to mention in that story?...Amongst other things, the fact that Jacoby and Young Political Majors were hired by the California Republican Party to head up their voter registration efforts in the state. Jacoby had been arrested for Voter Registration Fraud last October, smack dab during the media's orgasmic heights of last year's phony GOP ACORN "Voter Fraud" hoax, even as Fox "News" (and the other news outlets who similarly fell for the scam) were going wall-to-wall with their unsupported insinuations about voter fraud by ACORN, Democrats and Obama.
The news about the arrest of Jacoby, at the time, had occurred just as I was heading out for an appearance on Fox "News", so I was able to break the news on-air in my own "Fox 'News' Alert". (Video originally posted here, reposted at bottom of this item.)
Given the way the LA Times blog "covered" the story of Jacoby's plea --- not even mentioning the fact that this guy and his group were hired by the California state Republican Party --- I'd say it's a fair bet Fox wouldn't even have bothered to mention the original arrest at all had I not been on air and forcing them to do so myself. Much as they are unlikely to bother reporting Jacoby's plea today.
More here.
It's worth listening to right-wingers in the media and in government, if only because when you hear them decry something, whether it's marital infidelity, gay sex, fraudulent voter registration, Obama Administration intrusion into people's lives, or anything else, they're actually talking about themselves.
Tagged as: voter fraud
Jill Hussein C. blogs at Brilliant at Breakfast.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Fort Detrick Inventory Turns Up 9,220 More Vials of Pathogens - washingtonpost.com
Huummmm, they keep warning us about Pandemics - is this why?
Fort Detrick Inventory Turns Up 9,220 More Vials of Pathogens - washingtonpost.com
By Nelson HernandezWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 18, 2009
An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing.
FORT DETRICK: Inventory Uncovers 9,200 More Pathogens
INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Most Research Suspended at Fort Detrick
Huge New Biodefense Lab Is Dedicated at Fort Detrick
After four months of searching about 335 freezers and refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn't been included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute's deputy commander.
The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn't been used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.
Kortepeter likened the inventory to cleaning out the attic and said he knew of no plans for an investigation into how the vials had been left out of the database. "The vast majority of these samples were working stock that were accumulated over decades," he said, left there by scientists who had retired or left the institute.
"I can't say that nothing did [leave the lab], but I can say that we think it's extremely unlikely," Kortepeter said.
Still, the overstock and the previous inaccuracy of the database raised the possibility that someone could have taken a sample outside the lab with no way for officials to know something was missing.
"Nine thousand, two hundred undocumented samples is an extraordinarily serious breach," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor at Rutgers University who follows biosecurity. "A small number would be a concern; 9,200 . . . at an institution that has been the focus of intense scrutiny on this issue, that's deeply worrisome. Unacceptable."
The institute has been under pressure to tighten security in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17. FBI investigators say they think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year during an investigation into his activities.
Kortepeter noted that since 2001 the lab has imposed multiple layers of security to check people entering and leaving, that there are now cameras in the labs, and that employees are subjected to a reliability program and random inspections.
"The bottom line is, we have a lot of buffers to prevent anybody who shouldn't be getting into the laboratory," Kortepeter said.
Sam Edwin, the institute's inventory control officer, said most of the samples found were vials with tiny amounts of pathogens that would thaw quickly and die once they were taken out of a freezer, making smuggling something off the base difficult.
The probe began in February, when a problem accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus triggered the suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 listed in the institute's database. Most work was stopped until the institute could take a thorough inventory of its stock of viruses and bacteria.
Edwin said about 50 percent of the samples that had been found were destroyed. The rest were added to the catalog. Because the lab will now conduct an inventory every year, "it's really less likely that we will be in a situation like this again," he said.
Procedures have changed, too. Scientists who have worked at the lab said that in the past, departing scientists turned over their logbooks to their successors, but records were sometimes incomplete or complex. As generations of scientists passed through, the knowledge of what was in the freezers was lost. With a comprehensive database, every sample is now tracked until it is destroyed or transferred.
But some scientists are skeptical. Unlike uranium or chemical weapons, pathogens are living materials that can replicate and die. A small amount can easily be turned into a large amount. They said the strict inventories slow their work without guaranteeing security.
Fort Detrick Inventory Turns Up 9,220 More Vials of Pathogens - washingtonpost.com
By Nelson HernandezWashington Post Staff Writer Thursday, June 18, 2009
An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing.
FORT DETRICK: Inventory Uncovers 9,200 More Pathogens
INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Most Research Suspended at Fort Detrick
Huge New Biodefense Lab Is Dedicated at Fort Detrick
After four months of searching about 335 freezers and refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn't been included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute's deputy commander.
The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn't been used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.
Kortepeter likened the inventory to cleaning out the attic and said he knew of no plans for an investigation into how the vials had been left out of the database. "The vast majority of these samples were working stock that were accumulated over decades," he said, left there by scientists who had retired or left the institute.
"I can't say that nothing did [leave the lab], but I can say that we think it's extremely unlikely," Kortepeter said.
Still, the overstock and the previous inaccuracy of the database raised the possibility that someone could have taken a sample outside the lab with no way for officials to know something was missing.
"Nine thousand, two hundred undocumented samples is an extraordinarily serious breach," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor at Rutgers University who follows biosecurity. "A small number would be a concern; 9,200 . . . at an institution that has been the focus of intense scrutiny on this issue, that's deeply worrisome. Unacceptable."
The institute has been under pressure to tighten security in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17. FBI investigators say they think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year during an investigation into his activities.
Kortepeter noted that since 2001 the lab has imposed multiple layers of security to check people entering and leaving, that there are now cameras in the labs, and that employees are subjected to a reliability program and random inspections.
"The bottom line is, we have a lot of buffers to prevent anybody who shouldn't be getting into the laboratory," Kortepeter said.
Sam Edwin, the institute's inventory control officer, said most of the samples found were vials with tiny amounts of pathogens that would thaw quickly and die once they were taken out of a freezer, making smuggling something off the base difficult.
The probe began in February, when a problem accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus triggered the suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 listed in the institute's database. Most work was stopped until the institute could take a thorough inventory of its stock of viruses and bacteria.
Edwin said about 50 percent of the samples that had been found were destroyed. The rest were added to the catalog. Because the lab will now conduct an inventory every year, "it's really less likely that we will be in a situation like this again," he said.
Procedures have changed, too. Scientists who have worked at the lab said that in the past, departing scientists turned over their logbooks to their successors, but records were sometimes incomplete or complex. As generations of scientists passed through, the knowledge of what was in the freezers was lost. With a comprehensive database, every sample is now tracked until it is destroyed or transferred.
But some scientists are skeptical. Unlike uranium or chemical weapons, pathogens are living materials that can replicate and die. A small amount can easily be turned into a large amount. They said the strict inventories slow their work without guaranteeing security.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Insurers Tell Congress: Hell Yes! If You're Sick, We're Pulling Your Insurance Coverage | Crooks and Liars
Insurers Tell Congress: Hell Yes! If You're Sick, We're Pulling Your Insurance Coverage Crooks and Liars
Insurers Tell Congress: Hell Yes! If You're Sick, We're Pulling Your Insurance CoverageBy Susie Madrak Wednesday Jun 17, 2009 5:00pm
This is what happens when you don't allow real competition into the picture. It's also what happens when you have a for-profit healthcare system:
Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals for revamping the nation's healthcare system.
An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.
Isn't that lovely. Blue Cross is here for you!
"No one can defend, and I certainly cannot defend, the practice of canceling coverage after the fact," said Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Tex.), a member of the committee. "There is no acceptable minimum to denying coverage after the fact."
The executives -- Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth's Golden Rule Insurance Co.; Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health and Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of Blue Cross of California -- were courteous and matter-of-fact in their testimony.
But they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit fraud to obtain coverage, a refusal that met with dismay from legislators on both sides of the political aisle.
Experts said it could undermine the industry's efforts to influence healthcare-overhaul plans working their way toward the White House.
"Talk about tone deaf," said Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive who now counsels companies as a consultant.
Insurers Tell Congress: Hell Yes! If You're Sick, We're Pulling Your Insurance CoverageBy Susie Madrak Wednesday Jun 17, 2009 5:00pm
This is what happens when you don't allow real competition into the picture. It's also what happens when you have a for-profit healthcare system:
Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.
The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals for revamping the nation's healthcare system.
An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.
Isn't that lovely. Blue Cross is here for you!
"No one can defend, and I certainly cannot defend, the practice of canceling coverage after the fact," said Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-Tex.), a member of the committee. "There is no acceptable minimum to denying coverage after the fact."
The executives -- Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth's Golden Rule Insurance Co.; Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health and Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of Blue Cross of California -- were courteous and matter-of-fact in their testimony.
But they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit fraud to obtain coverage, a refusal that met with dismay from legislators on both sides of the political aisle.
Experts said it could undermine the industry's efforts to influence healthcare-overhaul plans working their way toward the White House.
"Talk about tone deaf," said Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive who now counsels companies as a consultant.
Obama Boost: New Poll Shows 76% Support For Choice Of Public Plan
Obama Boost: New Poll Shows 76% Support For Choice Of Public Plan
New poll numbers from NBC/Wall Street Journal produce two major and potentially conflicting story lines when it comes to the Obama administration's efforts for a health care overhaul. On the one hand, the American public overwhelmingly favors a choice between getting insurance coverage either through the private market or a government run option. Indeed, 76 percent of respondents said it was either "extremely" or "quite" important to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance."
With the public option being such a lightning rod in the current health care debate, progressive activists are already emailing around these numbers as evidence that voters are way ahead of the politicians. Certainly, the findings provide a boost of sorts to President Obama, who has stood by the public plan even as Republican opposition has crystallized.
That said, the president still has his work cut out for him. In the same NBC/WSJ poll, only 33 percent of respondents said they thought the president's health care plan, to the extent they knew of it, was a "good idea;" 32 percent said it was a bad idea.
In short: the administration has yet to complete the sale. An additional 30 percent of the public had no opinion of Obama's proposal for reform. But when read a description of the general outline -- requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, an employer mandate, tax credits for lower income families to buy coverage, and tax increases on wealthier Americans to pay for it - the number of respondents in support rose to 55 percent.
What is he waiting for?
New poll numbers from NBC/Wall Street Journal produce two major and potentially conflicting story lines when it comes to the Obama administration's efforts for a health care overhaul. On the one hand, the American public overwhelmingly favors a choice between getting insurance coverage either through the private market or a government run option. Indeed, 76 percent of respondents said it was either "extremely" or "quite" important to "give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance."
With the public option being such a lightning rod in the current health care debate, progressive activists are already emailing around these numbers as evidence that voters are way ahead of the politicians. Certainly, the findings provide a boost of sorts to President Obama, who has stood by the public plan even as Republican opposition has crystallized.
That said, the president still has his work cut out for him. In the same NBC/WSJ poll, only 33 percent of respondents said they thought the president's health care plan, to the extent they knew of it, was a "good idea;" 32 percent said it was a bad idea.
In short: the administration has yet to complete the sale. An additional 30 percent of the public had no opinion of Obama's proposal for reform. But when read a description of the general outline -- requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, an employer mandate, tax credits for lower income families to buy coverage, and tax increases on wealthier Americans to pay for it - the number of respondents in support rose to 55 percent.
What is he waiting for?
Monday, June 15, 2009
Bill Mann: Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign
Here's another Canadian health care system myth buster.
Bill Mann: Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign
Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign
digg Huffpost - stumble reddit del.ico.us
huffington_post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mann/americans-whove-used-cana_b_215256.html
Read More: Canada Universal Health Care, Canadian Healthcare, Cbc, Kiro, Single Payer, Tommy Douglas, Universal Health Care, Wall Street Journal, Media News
The scare ads and op-ed pieces featuring Canadians telling us American how terrible their government health-care systems have arrived - predictably.
There's another, factual view - by those of us Americans who've lived in Canada and used their system.
My wife and I did for years, and we've been incensed by the lies we've heard back here in the U.S. about Canada's supposedly broken system.
It's not broken - and what's more, Canadians like and fiercely defend it.
Example: Our son was born at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital. My wife got excellent care. The total bill for three days in a semi-private room? $21.
My friend Art Finley is a West Virginia native who lives in Vancouver.
"I'm 82, and in excellent health," he told me this week. "It costs me all of $57 a month for health care, and it's excellent. I'm so tired of all the lies and bullshit I hear about the system up here in the U.S. media."
Finley, a well-known TV and radio host for years in San Francisco, adds,
"I now have 20/20 vision thanks to Canadian eye doctors. And I haven't had to wait for my surgeries, either."
A Canadian-born doctor wrote a hit piece for Wingnut Central (the Wall Street Journal op-ed page) this week David Gratzer claimed:
"Everyone in Canada is covered by a single payer -- the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system." Vancouverite Finley: "That's sheer b.s."
I heard Gratzer say the same thing on Seattle radio station KIRO this week. Trouble is, it's nonsense.
We were always seen promptly by our doctors in Montreal, many of whom spoke both French and English.
Today, we live within sight of the Canadian border in Washington state, and still spend lots of time in Canada.
Five years ago, while we were on vacation in lovely Nova Scotia, the Canadian government released a long-awaited major report from a federal commission studying the Canadian single-payer system. We were listening to CBC Radio the day the big study came out.
The study's conclusion: While the system had flaws, none was so serious it couldn't be fixed.
Then the CBC opened the lines to callers across Canada.
Here it comes, I thought. The usual talk-show torrent of complaints and anger about the report's findings.I wish Americans could have heard this revealing show.
For the next two hours, scores of Canadians called from across that vast country, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
Not one said he or she would change the system. Every single one defended it vigorously.
Further proof: Not long ago, the CBC asked Canadians to nominate and then vote for The Greatest Canadian in history. Thousands responded.
The winner? Not Wayne Gretzky, as I expected (although the hockey great DID make the Top 10). Not even Alexander Graham Bell, another finalist.
The greatest Canadian ever?
Tommy Douglas.
Who? Tommy Douglas was a Canadian politician - and the father of Canadian universal health care.
Bill Mann: Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign
Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign
digg Huffpost - stumble reddit del.ico.us
huffington_post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mann/americans-whove-used-cana_b_215256.html
Read More: Canada Universal Health Care, Canadian Healthcare, Cbc, Kiro, Single Payer, Tommy Douglas, Universal Health Care, Wall Street Journal, Media News
The scare ads and op-ed pieces featuring Canadians telling us American how terrible their government health-care systems have arrived - predictably.
There's another, factual view - by those of us Americans who've lived in Canada and used their system.
My wife and I did for years, and we've been incensed by the lies we've heard back here in the U.S. about Canada's supposedly broken system.
It's not broken - and what's more, Canadians like and fiercely defend it.
Example: Our son was born at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital. My wife got excellent care. The total bill for three days in a semi-private room? $21.
My friend Art Finley is a West Virginia native who lives in Vancouver.
"I'm 82, and in excellent health," he told me this week. "It costs me all of $57 a month for health care, and it's excellent. I'm so tired of all the lies and bullshit I hear about the system up here in the U.S. media."
Finley, a well-known TV and radio host for years in San Francisco, adds,
"I now have 20/20 vision thanks to Canadian eye doctors. And I haven't had to wait for my surgeries, either."
A Canadian-born doctor wrote a hit piece for Wingnut Central (the Wall Street Journal op-ed page) this week David Gratzer claimed:
"Everyone in Canada is covered by a single payer -- the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system." Vancouverite Finley: "That's sheer b.s."
I heard Gratzer say the same thing on Seattle radio station KIRO this week. Trouble is, it's nonsense.
We were always seen promptly by our doctors in Montreal, many of whom spoke both French and English.
Today, we live within sight of the Canadian border in Washington state, and still spend lots of time in Canada.
Five years ago, while we were on vacation in lovely Nova Scotia, the Canadian government released a long-awaited major report from a federal commission studying the Canadian single-payer system. We were listening to CBC Radio the day the big study came out.
The study's conclusion: While the system had flaws, none was so serious it couldn't be fixed.
Then the CBC opened the lines to callers across Canada.
Here it comes, I thought. The usual talk-show torrent of complaints and anger about the report's findings.I wish Americans could have heard this revealing show.
For the next two hours, scores of Canadians called from across that vast country, from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
Not one said he or she would change the system. Every single one defended it vigorously.
Further proof: Not long ago, the CBC asked Canadians to nominate and then vote for The Greatest Canadian in history. Thousands responded.
The winner? Not Wayne Gretzky, as I expected (although the hockey great DID make the Top 10). Not even Alexander Graham Bell, another finalist.
The greatest Canadian ever?
Tommy Douglas.
Who? Tommy Douglas was a Canadian politician - and the father of Canadian universal health care.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
AMA reporting needs a second opinion | Media Matters for America
AMA reporting needs a second opinion Media Matters for America
AMA reporting needs a second opinion
June 12, 2009 11:58 am ET
Thursday's New York Times article about the American Medical Association's opposition to the inclusion of a strong public option in health care reform had several serious flaws. As a result, it greatly overstated the significance of the AMA's stance and left out key information that undermines the group's claims.
The most basic flaw in the Times article is that it never made clear who the AMA represents. The article's headline described the AMA as a "Doctors' group." The second paragraph said it "is America's largest physician organization," with "about 250,000 members." The eighth paragraph said the AMA "probably has more influence than any other group in the health care industry." And the 13th described the AMA as "an umbrella group for 180 medical societies" before finally acknowledging it "does not speak for all doctors."
In fact, the AMA speaks for less than one-third of doctors. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 physicians practicing in America today, so the AMA's 250,000 members constitute only about 30 percent of all doctors.
Are the views of AMA members representative of the views of all physicians? The Times didn't even begin to address that question. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reported that "the AMA's members tend to be more skeptical" of comprehensive health care reform "than the average doc." Matthew Holt of the widely respected Health Care Blog said the AMA "in general over-represents specialists and those in small practices." The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn added that the medical community does not "speak with the same unified, conservative voice it once did. ... Primary care physicians in partiuclar [sic] -- organized through groups like American Academy of Family Phyisicians [sic] and the American Pediatrics Association -- are generally more liberal and may well speak out in favor of the public plan, if they haven't already."
The Times' only indication that other doctors' groups might support a public option came in the 13th paragraph:
One group, Physicians for a National Health Program, supports a single-payer system of insurance, in which a single public agency would pay for health services, but most care would still be delivered by private doctors and hospitals. In recent years, some doctors have become so fed up with the administrative hassles of private insurance that they are looking for alternatives.
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein, however, noted that there are others:
Take the National Physicians Alliance. It's a newer, smaller, younger association of doctors. It sees the interests of doctors as inseparable from the interests of patients. It supports a public plan. Or check out Physicians for a National Health Care Plan, which see the interests of doctors as irreconcilable with the interests of insurers. It's for single-payer.
Indeed, National Physicians Alliance policy chair Chris McCoy blasted the AMA's opposition to a public plan and renounced his membership in the AMA. That suggests the AMA may not speak for its own members, much less all doctors.
McCoy's open letter to the AMA brings up another way the New York Times article failed to give readers the proper context. The article made no attempt to assess the incentives the AMA might have to oppose a public plan, or to explain where the interests of doctors might diverge from the interests of patients and of the uninsured (or, for that matter, where their interests might overlap.) More at the link above...
AMA reporting needs a second opinion
June 12, 2009 11:58 am ET
Thursday's New York Times article about the American Medical Association's opposition to the inclusion of a strong public option in health care reform had several serious flaws. As a result, it greatly overstated the significance of the AMA's stance and left out key information that undermines the group's claims.
The most basic flaw in the Times article is that it never made clear who the AMA represents. The article's headline described the AMA as a "Doctors' group." The second paragraph said it "is America's largest physician organization," with "about 250,000 members." The eighth paragraph said the AMA "probably has more influence than any other group in the health care industry." And the 13th described the AMA as "an umbrella group for 180 medical societies" before finally acknowledging it "does not speak for all doctors."
In fact, the AMA speaks for less than one-third of doctors. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 physicians practicing in America today, so the AMA's 250,000 members constitute only about 30 percent of all doctors.
Are the views of AMA members representative of the views of all physicians? The Times didn't even begin to address that question. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reported that "the AMA's members tend to be more skeptical" of comprehensive health care reform "than the average doc." Matthew Holt of the widely respected Health Care Blog said the AMA "in general over-represents specialists and those in small practices." The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn added that the medical community does not "speak with the same unified, conservative voice it once did. ... Primary care physicians in partiuclar [sic] -- organized through groups like American Academy of Family Phyisicians [sic] and the American Pediatrics Association -- are generally more liberal and may well speak out in favor of the public plan, if they haven't already."
The Times' only indication that other doctors' groups might support a public option came in the 13th paragraph:
One group, Physicians for a National Health Program, supports a single-payer system of insurance, in which a single public agency would pay for health services, but most care would still be delivered by private doctors and hospitals. In recent years, some doctors have become so fed up with the administrative hassles of private insurance that they are looking for alternatives.
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein, however, noted that there are others:
Take the National Physicians Alliance. It's a newer, smaller, younger association of doctors. It sees the interests of doctors as inseparable from the interests of patients. It supports a public plan. Or check out Physicians for a National Health Care Plan, which see the interests of doctors as irreconcilable with the interests of insurers. It's for single-payer.
Indeed, National Physicians Alliance policy chair Chris McCoy blasted the AMA's opposition to a public plan and renounced his membership in the AMA. That suggests the AMA may not speak for its own members, much less all doctors.
McCoy's open letter to the AMA brings up another way the New York Times article failed to give readers the proper context. The article made no attempt to assess the incentives the AMA might have to oppose a public plan, or to explain where the interests of doctors might diverge from the interests of patients and of the uninsured (or, for that matter, where their interests might overlap.) More at the link above...
Friday, June 12, 2009
Sen. Kent Conrad says "screw you" to the health-care coalition, since we don't have a vote in Congress | Crooks and Liars
Sen. Kent Conrad says "screw you" to the health-care coalition, since we don't have a vote in Congress Crooks and Liars
Sen. Kent Conrad says "screw you" to the health-care coalition, since we don't have a vote in Congress
By John Amato Thursday Jun 11, 2009 2:45pm
With Democrats like these, who needs conservatives? (D) Sen. Kent Conrad had this to say about health care activists:
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Wednesday that he is "frankly not terribly interested" in what the major health care reform coalition thinks and is pushing ahead with a proposal the group rejects.
"I am unaware that HCAN has any votes on the floor of the United States Senate," said Conrad when told that the coalition Health Care for America Now opposed his plan to create regional health care co-ops instead of allowing consumers to have access to a public plan option.
"They have no votes on the floor of the United States Senate. And I am dealing with votes in the finance committee and the floor of the United States Senate. I am frankly not terribly interested in what these myriad groups all think. I am interested in what people who vote think," he said, flailing his arms and knocking a Politico reporter's recorder to the marble floor.
"I don't even respond to that kind of thing. I think it is just chatter. What matters is results, legislative results at the end of the day," he said.
But aren't the "myriad groups" he's referring to the base of the Democratic Party? Shouldn't he give some weight to their position?
Conrad wasn't having it. "What is it that they want to get? Are they interested in the name of something or are they interested in getting a result that delivers on what is behind the name? I am interested in actually achieving a result. Not a label, but an alternative to the delivery model of for-profit insurance companies," he said. "The great thing about democracy is we get to debate. It's healthy. It's good to have a debate."
What is wrong with Conrad? Hasn't he learned that co-ops are meaningless in this new push for health care reform? We already have non-profits running these co-ops and look where we are now!
Digby has much more.
He's obviously interested in what Republican voters think. They are the control group. And never let it be said that your Democratic leaders are elites who would prefer to listen to health industry lobbyists (who you can bet are pounding down the doors and crowding the hallways) than their own constituents. They figure we'll take whatever scraps they feed us and be thankful for them.--Let's be clear here. Conrad's brilliant idea for "health care co-ops" is meaningless. There are already a bunch of non-profits in the marketplace and It's done absolutely nothing to control costs. The only thing that will (short of single payer which was written out of the debate by the presidential candidates) is for millions of people to sign up for a public plan that has the clout to influence pricing and efficiency. Anything short of that is a gift to the insurance companies who are undoubtedly ecstatic that Conrad has put this "compromise" on the table.
The only people who are engaged in the details of the health care debate on the merits are liberal interest groups and the activists. The great stressed out middle is too confused to believe anything will ever change and the right and the Medical Industrial Complex (for various reasons) are determined to defeat reform by any means possible. Why do the Democrats think it's a good idea to dismiss and deride their only allies in a situation like this? Is it too cynical to entertain the thought that they are actively courting failure?...read on
It's hard to wrap my head around what Conrad is saying. It's unbelievable that he would dismiss his own base in favor of trying to curry favor with a bunch of teabgging conservatives that will never compromise and never be bipartisan unless Conrad collapses and bows down to their will. WAKE UP! Grow Up! We are all you have in this fight and you are elected because people like us voted for you. You are supposed to represent us, the people and not the Health Industrial Complex. Republicans have been doing one thing only and that's called "obstructionism, get it? These people are making me sick.
Sen. Kent Conrad says "screw you" to the health-care coalition, since we don't have a vote in Congress
By John Amato Thursday Jun 11, 2009 2:45pm
With Democrats like these, who needs conservatives? (D) Sen. Kent Conrad had this to say about health care activists:
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Wednesday that he is "frankly not terribly interested" in what the major health care reform coalition thinks and is pushing ahead with a proposal the group rejects.
"I am unaware that HCAN has any votes on the floor of the United States Senate," said Conrad when told that the coalition Health Care for America Now opposed his plan to create regional health care co-ops instead of allowing consumers to have access to a public plan option.
"They have no votes on the floor of the United States Senate. And I am dealing with votes in the finance committee and the floor of the United States Senate. I am frankly not terribly interested in what these myriad groups all think. I am interested in what people who vote think," he said, flailing his arms and knocking a Politico reporter's recorder to the marble floor.
"I don't even respond to that kind of thing. I think it is just chatter. What matters is results, legislative results at the end of the day," he said.
But aren't the "myriad groups" he's referring to the base of the Democratic Party? Shouldn't he give some weight to their position?
Conrad wasn't having it. "What is it that they want to get? Are they interested in the name of something or are they interested in getting a result that delivers on what is behind the name? I am interested in actually achieving a result. Not a label, but an alternative to the delivery model of for-profit insurance companies," he said. "The great thing about democracy is we get to debate. It's healthy. It's good to have a debate."
What is wrong with Conrad? Hasn't he learned that co-ops are meaningless in this new push for health care reform? We already have non-profits running these co-ops and look where we are now!
Digby has much more.
He's obviously interested in what Republican voters think. They are the control group. And never let it be said that your Democratic leaders are elites who would prefer to listen to health industry lobbyists (who you can bet are pounding down the doors and crowding the hallways) than their own constituents. They figure we'll take whatever scraps they feed us and be thankful for them.--Let's be clear here. Conrad's brilliant idea for "health care co-ops" is meaningless. There are already a bunch of non-profits in the marketplace and It's done absolutely nothing to control costs. The only thing that will (short of single payer which was written out of the debate by the presidential candidates) is for millions of people to sign up for a public plan that has the clout to influence pricing and efficiency. Anything short of that is a gift to the insurance companies who are undoubtedly ecstatic that Conrad has put this "compromise" on the table.
The only people who are engaged in the details of the health care debate on the merits are liberal interest groups and the activists. The great stressed out middle is too confused to believe anything will ever change and the right and the Medical Industrial Complex (for various reasons) are determined to defeat reform by any means possible. Why do the Democrats think it's a good idea to dismiss and deride their only allies in a situation like this? Is it too cynical to entertain the thought that they are actively courting failure?...read on
It's hard to wrap my head around what Conrad is saying. It's unbelievable that he would dismiss his own base in favor of trying to curry favor with a bunch of teabgging conservatives that will never compromise and never be bipartisan unless Conrad collapses and bows down to their will. WAKE UP! Grow Up! We are all you have in this fight and you are elected because people like us voted for you. You are supposed to represent us, the people and not the Health Industrial Complex. Republicans have been doing one thing only and that's called "obstructionism, get it? These people are making me sick.
Merkley Takes Aim at Opponents of Health Care Reform
Merkley exposes RNC talking points on health care. He talks about Frank Luntz's talking points such as Government takeover, expectations of delayed and denied treatment, Americans don't want to be forced by bureaucrats, etc., and all used by Republican talkers and pols, are being used to scare people by lying to them.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Mike Malloy: Air France flight 447 - Collateral Damage?
Mike Malloy: Air France flight 447 - Collateral Damage?
Mike Malloy: Air France flight 447 - Collateral Damage?
Monday, 08 June 2009 21:52
More bodies were pulled from the mid-Atlantic over the weekend near what is presumed to be the crash site of Air France flight 447.As reported in today’s New York Times: But the answer to why the Airbus 330 jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic eight days ago remained elusive as an armada of French and Brazilian ships and planes continued to scour the ocean for debris and the flight data and cockpit voice recorders lying perhaps miles below the surface.
Nearly all the effort to determine the cause of the crash is being focused on air speed, the performance of the “Pitot tube,” the humidity level of the atmosphere through which the plane was attempting to fly, turbulence, all of which are questions that cannot be answered without the data collected in the on-board flight recorder now lying, it is presumed, in 10,000+ feet of water.
But, what if the plane had been blown out of the sky? What if a bomb had been placed in the luggage compartment in those last moments before departure?
According to Scotland’s Sunday Herald yesterday Amid the media frenzy and speculation over the disappearance of Air France’s ill-fated Flight 447, the loss of two of the world’s most prominent figures in the war on the illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking has been virtually overlooked.
The two men, Pablo Dreyfus, a 39-year-old Argentine and Ronald Dreyer, a Swiss diplomat were both on Flight 447. Dreyfus had worked at great personal risk to interdict the flow of illegal arms into Brazil. Dreyer was the co-ordinator of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence who had worked with UN missions in El Salvador, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Angola.
As the Herald reports Dreyfus knew that many of the weapons from the so-called tri-border area between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina were reaching Rio drug gangs. The newspaper added, When unidentified gunmen made off with a stash of hand grenades from an Argentine military garrison in 2006, Dreyfus deplored what he said was lax security at military depots across the world. “If a supermarket can keep control of the amount of peas it has in stock, surely a military organization could and should be able to do the same with equal if not greater efficiency with its weapons,” he said. “The key words are logistics, control, security.”
When Rio agents smashed a cell of drug traffickers who had sourced their weapons from the tri-border area, Dreyfus noted its leaders were prominent businessmen living in apartments in the plush Rio suburbs of Ipanema and São Corrado, not in the favelas (slums).
In a recent report posted on the Brazilian website Comunidade Segura (Safe Community), Dreyfus noted that the Brazilian arms firm CBC (Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos) had become one of the world’s biggest ammunition producers by purchasing Germany’s Metallwerk Elisenhutte Nassau (MEN) in 2007, and Sellier & Bellot (S&B) of the Czech Republic in March.
Two of the largest - if not the largest - industries that provide hundreds of billions of dollars annually for global clandestine activities, including the overthrow of governments, assassinations, currency attacks, economic destabilizations, and the funding of secret armies, are the drug and weapon industries. It is a world that exists completely outside the realm of law, order, or control of any sort. And, any threat to reveal the scope of these two industries - and the names of prominent global leaders involved - is instantly silenced. Such has it always been. The opium trade now in operation in Afghanistan, and the opium trade forced on China 160 years ago are fierce examples of the degree to which nations and/or cartels will resort to extreme violence - including war and the subsequent deaths of thousands of innocent people - in order to maintain the efficacy of their operations. A plane crash killing 228 people could be seen as simply “collateral damage” in silencing, in this instance, Pablo Dreyfus and Ronald Dreyer.
Mike Malloy: Air France flight 447 - Collateral Damage?
Monday, 08 June 2009 21:52
More bodies were pulled from the mid-Atlantic over the weekend near what is presumed to be the crash site of Air France flight 447.As reported in today’s New York Times: But the answer to why the Airbus 330 jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic eight days ago remained elusive as an armada of French and Brazilian ships and planes continued to scour the ocean for debris and the flight data and cockpit voice recorders lying perhaps miles below the surface.
Nearly all the effort to determine the cause of the crash is being focused on air speed, the performance of the “Pitot tube,” the humidity level of the atmosphere through which the plane was attempting to fly, turbulence, all of which are questions that cannot be answered without the data collected in the on-board flight recorder now lying, it is presumed, in 10,000+ feet of water.
But, what if the plane had been blown out of the sky? What if a bomb had been placed in the luggage compartment in those last moments before departure?
According to Scotland’s Sunday Herald yesterday Amid the media frenzy and speculation over the disappearance of Air France’s ill-fated Flight 447, the loss of two of the world’s most prominent figures in the war on the illegal arms trade and international drug trafficking has been virtually overlooked.
The two men, Pablo Dreyfus, a 39-year-old Argentine and Ronald Dreyer, a Swiss diplomat were both on Flight 447. Dreyfus had worked at great personal risk to interdict the flow of illegal arms into Brazil. Dreyer was the co-ordinator of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence who had worked with UN missions in El Salvador, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Angola.
As the Herald reports Dreyfus knew that many of the weapons from the so-called tri-border area between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina were reaching Rio drug gangs. The newspaper added, When unidentified gunmen made off with a stash of hand grenades from an Argentine military garrison in 2006, Dreyfus deplored what he said was lax security at military depots across the world. “If a supermarket can keep control of the amount of peas it has in stock, surely a military organization could and should be able to do the same with equal if not greater efficiency with its weapons,” he said. “The key words are logistics, control, security.”
When Rio agents smashed a cell of drug traffickers who had sourced their weapons from the tri-border area, Dreyfus noted its leaders were prominent businessmen living in apartments in the plush Rio suburbs of Ipanema and São Corrado, not in the favelas (slums).
In a recent report posted on the Brazilian website Comunidade Segura (Safe Community), Dreyfus noted that the Brazilian arms firm CBC (Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos) had become one of the world’s biggest ammunition producers by purchasing Germany’s Metallwerk Elisenhutte Nassau (MEN) in 2007, and Sellier & Bellot (S&B) of the Czech Republic in March.
Two of the largest - if not the largest - industries that provide hundreds of billions of dollars annually for global clandestine activities, including the overthrow of governments, assassinations, currency attacks, economic destabilizations, and the funding of secret armies, are the drug and weapon industries. It is a world that exists completely outside the realm of law, order, or control of any sort. And, any threat to reveal the scope of these two industries - and the names of prominent global leaders involved - is instantly silenced. Such has it always been. The opium trade now in operation in Afghanistan, and the opium trade forced on China 160 years ago are fierce examples of the degree to which nations and/or cartels will resort to extreme violence - including war and the subsequent deaths of thousands of innocent people - in order to maintain the efficacy of their operations. A plane crash killing 228 people could be seen as simply “collateral damage” in silencing, in this instance, Pablo Dreyfus and Ronald Dreyer.
Video: London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects - Times Online
Okay, here we go. For those who thought waterboarding would only be used on foreign terrorists, this is what's happening in the UK. If they'll do it to THEM, they'll do it to us. This may have happened in the UK, but it's a pretty sure thing that it'll jump the big pond before long. If they'll taser a 72 year old grandma, AFTER she lays down on the ground as directed, they'll sure do it to you.
Video: London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects - Times Online
London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects
Sean O’Neill, Crime Editor
Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt.
The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial and the suspension of several police officers.
However, senior policing officials are most alarmed by the claim that officers in Enfield, North London, used the controversial CIA interrogation technique to simulate drowning. Scotland Yard is appointing a new borough commander in Enfield in a move that is being seen as an attempt by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to enforce a regime of “intrusive supervision”.
The waterboarding claims will fuel the debate about police conduct that has raged in the wake of hundreds of public complaints of brutality at the anti-G20 protests in April.
The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested at addresses in Enfield and Tottenham. Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a Class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not have been in the public interest to proceed. It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.
None of the officers under suspicion has been arrested, but the IPCC said last night: “This is an ongoing criminal investigation and as such all six officers will be criminally interviewed under caution.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation is ongoing it is not appropriate to make assumptions. These are serious allegations that raise real concern. The Met does not tolerate conduct which falls below the standards that the public and the many outstanding Met officers and staff expect.”
Video: London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects - Times Online
London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects
Sean O’Neill, Crime Editor
Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt.
The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial and the suspension of several police officers.
However, senior policing officials are most alarmed by the claim that officers in Enfield, North London, used the controversial CIA interrogation technique to simulate drowning. Scotland Yard is appointing a new borough commander in Enfield in a move that is being seen as an attempt by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to enforce a regime of “intrusive supervision”.
The waterboarding claims will fuel the debate about police conduct that has raged in the wake of hundreds of public complaints of brutality at the anti-G20 protests in April.
The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested at addresses in Enfield and Tottenham. Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a Class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not have been in the public interest to proceed. It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.
None of the officers under suspicion has been arrested, but the IPCC said last night: “This is an ongoing criminal investigation and as such all six officers will be criminally interviewed under caution.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation is ongoing it is not appropriate to make assumptions. These are serious allegations that raise real concern. The Met does not tolerate conduct which falls below the standards that the public and the many outstanding Met officers and staff expect.”
Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Sleazeball Debt Collector? | | AlterNet
This is one reason I've been dubious of Facebook. Don't let somebody be your "friend" if you don't know who they are, and don't post important information about yourself on these social networking sites.
Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Sleazeball Debt Collector? AlterNet
Exposing the latest and slimiest ways the "financial services" industry is raking it in from cash-crunched Americans.
With millions of Americans struggling in the current economic crisis, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of people are falling behind paying their bills. This is no cause for celebration -- unless of course, you happen to make your living as a debt collector, a debt-settlement company or other notoriously sleazy outfits engineered to profit off people's financial misery.
It’s bad enough that while newspapers and car companies die off, the debt business is booming. But recent months have brought a number of reports and lawsuits that exposed some of the latest -- and slimiest -- ways the "financial services" industry is using to cash in on already-struggling Americans.
Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Debt Collector?
When Michigan resident Paula Newland fell behind in her car payments, she found herself battling some typical -- and not so typical -- tactics used by debt collectors. In addition to repeated, harassing phone calls from three companies -- including 15 calls on one Saturday and claims that phone calls were "concerning a 'family emergency' " -- Newland was told that if she did not pay up, her car would be reported stolen, and she would be arrested. The company also threatened to deploy what they called a "shame automobile" and "camp out all weekend" in front of her house.
And then came a novel approach: As if all this weren’t enough, the fact there were overdue payments for her 2005 Chevy Impala were broadcast on her MySpace account.
Outraged and humiliated, Newland filed a civil suit earlier this year claiming "damage to her business and community reputation, extreme mental distress, aggravation, humiliation and embarrassment."
Newland is hardly alone. Debt collectors are increasingly using social-networking technology to go after people in debt. Ever get "friended" on Facebook by a cute stranger? Think twice before you add them. Some debt collectors have been caught posing as random "friends" on Facebook. More at the link above...
Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Sleazeball Debt Collector? AlterNet
Exposing the latest and slimiest ways the "financial services" industry is raking it in from cash-crunched Americans.
With millions of Americans struggling in the current economic crisis, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of people are falling behind paying their bills. This is no cause for celebration -- unless of course, you happen to make your living as a debt collector, a debt-settlement company or other notoriously sleazy outfits engineered to profit off people's financial misery.
It’s bad enough that while newspapers and car companies die off, the debt business is booming. But recent months have brought a number of reports and lawsuits that exposed some of the latest -- and slimiest -- ways the "financial services" industry is using to cash in on already-struggling Americans.
Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Debt Collector?
When Michigan resident Paula Newland fell behind in her car payments, she found herself battling some typical -- and not so typical -- tactics used by debt collectors. In addition to repeated, harassing phone calls from three companies -- including 15 calls on one Saturday and claims that phone calls were "concerning a 'family emergency' " -- Newland was told that if she did not pay up, her car would be reported stolen, and she would be arrested. The company also threatened to deploy what they called a "shame automobile" and "camp out all weekend" in front of her house.
And then came a novel approach: As if all this weren’t enough, the fact there were overdue payments for her 2005 Chevy Impala were broadcast on her MySpace account.
Outraged and humiliated, Newland filed a civil suit earlier this year claiming "damage to her business and community reputation, extreme mental distress, aggravation, humiliation and embarrassment."
Newland is hardly alone. Debt collectors are increasingly using social-networking technology to go after people in debt. Ever get "friended" on Facebook by a cute stranger? Think twice before you add them. Some debt collectors have been caught posing as random "friends" on Facebook. More at the link above...
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Phil Roe's Propaganda Cites Lewin Group, A Subsidiary Of United Health Group
Notice in Roe's press release in the lower portion, he cites a study of a supposedly independent firm, the Lewin Group. Google that and you'll find out that the Lewin Group is not at all independent, and is in fact a subsidiary of United Health, which is an insurance company. Immediately below is a new posting from their site as they are looking to fill the position of Vice President. UHG's CEO, Stephen Hemsley, garners quite a salary, a mere $3,241,042, which puts him in the top ten for CEO pay. To state that they are independent is just more propaganda, and they need to be called on this lie. There is a letter now at the Times News called Obama Care where it might be a good place to bring in some of these points.
Vice President-Federal Health-Prospective Payment Systems-Lewin Group-305128
Description
Ingenix is part of the family of companies that make United Health Group one of the leaders across most major segments of the US health care system.
If you get excited about the life transforming potential of bringing health care information to the right place, at the right time, to support crucial decisions, welcome to Ingenix.
We're one of the largest and fastest growing health information companies and the only organization in our industry with the information, technology and consulting expertise to solve the most significant challenges in health and human services.
As a vital member of the UnitedHealth Group family, we serve customers in every segment of the health care field. This includes government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and health delivery networks, insurance providers and, of course, the diverse business divisions of UnitedHealth Group.
The Lewin Group is a premier national health care and human services consulting and policy analysis firm with more than 35 years of experience finding answers and solving problems for leading organizations in the public, non-profit, and private sectors. Lewin's strategic and analytical services aim to help clients:
Improve policy and expand knowledge of health care and human service systems
Enact, run, and evaluate programs to enhance delivery and financing of health care and family services
Deal with shifts in health care practice, technology, and regulation
Optimize performance, quality, coverage, and health outcomes
Create strategies for institutions, communities, associations, foundations governments, and people to make health care and human services systems more effective
Roe Statement on the Health Care Crisis
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Phil Roe (TN-1) gave the following statement on the House floor in an ongoing effort to address the health care crisis:
"Mister Speaker, it’s time we address the crisis in health care. We can ensure every American can get the care they need, protect individuals from costs that can bankrupt them, and make health insurance portable so that can move or change jobs without losing coverage. We can also stop insurance companies from avoiding sick patients by reforming the system to pay when people become healthier.
Enacting a public plan will not bring about this type of change. If you think you won’t be affected by a public plan, consider this: a recent analysis of this plan by the respected independent firm the Lewin Group estimated that 70 percent of individuals who have health care coverage through their employer would lose those benefits in favor of a public option. This plan could very easily be a Medicaid-like plan.
In fact, Senator Kennedy is proposing expanding Medicaid to families making up to $110,000 per year in the legislation he dropped yesterday.
When supporters of a public plan say they want a public plan to compete with private plans, the facts show what they’re really saying is they want Washington bureaucrats to take over healthcare decision-making. Buyer beware."
To view Roe's statement, please click here.
Vice President-Federal Health-Prospective Payment Systems-Lewin Group-305128
Description
Ingenix is part of the family of companies that make United Health Group one of the leaders across most major segments of the US health care system.
If you get excited about the life transforming potential of bringing health care information to the right place, at the right time, to support crucial decisions, welcome to Ingenix.
We're one of the largest and fastest growing health information companies and the only organization in our industry with the information, technology and consulting expertise to solve the most significant challenges in health and human services.
As a vital member of the UnitedHealth Group family, we serve customers in every segment of the health care field. This includes government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and health delivery networks, insurance providers and, of course, the diverse business divisions of UnitedHealth Group.
The Lewin Group is a premier national health care and human services consulting and policy analysis firm with more than 35 years of experience finding answers and solving problems for leading organizations in the public, non-profit, and private sectors. Lewin's strategic and analytical services aim to help clients:
Improve policy and expand knowledge of health care and human service systems
Enact, run, and evaluate programs to enhance delivery and financing of health care and family services
Deal with shifts in health care practice, technology, and regulation
Optimize performance, quality, coverage, and health outcomes
Create strategies for institutions, communities, associations, foundations governments, and people to make health care and human services systems more effective
Roe Statement on the Health Care Crisis
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Phil Roe (TN-1) gave the following statement on the House floor in an ongoing effort to address the health care crisis:
"Mister Speaker, it’s time we address the crisis in health care. We can ensure every American can get the care they need, protect individuals from costs that can bankrupt them, and make health insurance portable so that can move or change jobs without losing coverage. We can also stop insurance companies from avoiding sick patients by reforming the system to pay when people become healthier.
Enacting a public plan will not bring about this type of change. If you think you won’t be affected by a public plan, consider this: a recent analysis of this plan by the respected independent firm the Lewin Group estimated that 70 percent of individuals who have health care coverage through their employer would lose those benefits in favor of a public option. This plan could very easily be a Medicaid-like plan.
In fact, Senator Kennedy is proposing expanding Medicaid to families making up to $110,000 per year in the legislation he dropped yesterday.
When supporters of a public plan say they want a public plan to compete with private plans, the facts show what they’re really saying is they want Washington bureaucrats to take over healthcare decision-making. Buyer beware."
To view Roe's statement, please click here.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Phil Roe Hosting Tele-Town Hall on Health Care
Okay, everybody. This is the time to participate in this call and let them know that we need single-payer insurance. Otherwise, it will be stacked against us, with Republicans claiming that everybody is "satisfied" with their lack of health care options and so we don't need a public option!!
News from Congressman Phil Roe
REPRESENTING TENNESSEE'S 1st CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Monday, June 8, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Amanda Little
(202) 225-6356 or (202) 226-8074
Health Care Tele-Town Hall with Dr. Bill Frist and Congressman Dr. Phil Roe
Thursday, June 11th at 6:30 p.m. (EST)
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Dr. Phil Roe (TN-1) and former Senator Dr. Bill Frist announced they will conduct a telephone town hall on health care reform for constituents in the First District of Tennessee on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). During this telephone town hall, listeners will be able to ask questions directly to Congressman Roe and Dr. Frist.
To participate in our tele-town, please call the following number at 6:30 p.m. (EST) this Thursday:
877-269-7289, ID Code: 14615
For any other inquiries, please call 202-225-6356 or visit our web site at www.roe.house.gov.
News from Congressman Phil Roe
REPRESENTING TENNESSEE'S 1st CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Monday, June 8, 2009
For Immediate Release
Contact: Amanda Little
(202) 225-6356 or (202) 226-8074
Health Care Tele-Town Hall with Dr. Bill Frist and Congressman Dr. Phil Roe
Thursday, June 11th at 6:30 p.m. (EST)
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Dr. Phil Roe (TN-1) and former Senator Dr. Bill Frist announced they will conduct a telephone town hall on health care reform for constituents in the First District of Tennessee on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). During this telephone town hall, listeners will be able to ask questions directly to Congressman Roe and Dr. Frist.
To participate in our tele-town, please call the following number at 6:30 p.m. (EST) this Thursday:
877-269-7289, ID Code: 14615
For any other inquiries, please call 202-225-6356 or visit our web site at www.roe.house.gov.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Mustering | Election Fraud Blog
If ever there was a time to fully implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, it is now! Unfortunately, some Republican lawmakers in Tennessee don't want verifiable voting, and have been taking steps to prevent paper ballot machines, and therefore confirmable auditing from being installed.
Mustering Election Fraud Blog
Citizen-gathered evidence shows an increasing likelihood of electoral fraudTuesday, October 10th, 2006
It’s going to be up to us to make the case. We can’t solve a problem if we refuse to look. Citizens are fed up with black box elections, and are mustering up evidence of improper behavior that will swing the pendulum back in the direction it belongs.
Examples of the astonishing evidence uncovered by candidates and extraordinary citizens follows.
At first, we proved that the machines “theoretically’ could be tampered with. Then, in experiments in Leon County and Emery County, citizen-led investigations machines could ACTUALLY be tampered with.
At first, public records requests from Black Box Voting and others proved that election results were not authenticatable using available audit records. And now, Black Box Voting and citizens are coming up with audit records that show strong indications of improper behavior.
Be aware that we are not going to see a Perry Mason moment. Proof of corruption will be incremental, but it will come.
In 2006, your job will be to embark on the biggest citizen evidence-gathering expedition in history, to take this past the tipping point and achieve real change. Nothing will do but a reversal of the pendulum, back to citizen ownership and oversight of our own government and its electoral processes.
Let’s take a look now at some of the evidence citizens — and Black Box Voting — are uncovering:
1. Memphis: Candidates in Memphis asked Black Box Voting for help securing public records from the Aug. 3, 2006 election. Black Box Voting recommended getting a copy of the Diebold GEMS database, along with the Windows event log. What we found shocked us: The sheer number of legal and security violations in the event log were horrifying, and it also showed that Shelby County — or someone — was accessing the file during the middle of a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting this.
- A remote access program called PC Anywhere was found resident in the system- Evidence of insertion of an encrypted Lexar Jump Drive was present- Evidence of attempts to alter or write HTML files (used to report results) was present- Apparently without a firewall, the GEMS system was opened up to the County Network- A prohibited program, Microsoft Access, which makes editing the election chimpanzee-easy, was installed on the system AND USED shortly after the election.
To read more about Memphis, click here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/44242.html
The following is only part of what is posted at the above link;
2) On 8/7/06 somebody loaded a complete copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2000. This would include the MS-Access program long known as the simplest way to edit the contents of a Diebold central vote database (and banned for use in elections in virtually all jurisdictions nationwide). 3) On 8/22/06 for a period of over an hour -- and during a time period for which a Temporary Restraining Order was in effect -- somebody attempted to edit HTML data files. The only significant HTML files on a Diebold main server are vote total reports. The only reason any trace was left was because the HTML editing tools failed to load – they either broke somehow or weren’t loaded correctly. Either way, it suggests that somebody may have been hand-editing vote total reports, and that’s potentially very significant. For example: GEMS creates reports of vote tallies throughout election night, in either HTML or PDF formats. An editor for PDF data is included on the GEMS main server as shipped by Diebold, and HTML editors are easy to get. Those tally reports could be easily edited on election night, shifting the apparent vote totals, and then the main GEMS database could be hand-edited to match the false reports across most of the day after the election, to be illicitly uploaded via the password-protected Jumpdrive.
A Final Shelby County Fact (based on election official depositions): 4) At 6:30pm on election day, the GEMS main server was cross-connected to the main county computer network, which in turn has a cross-connection to the main Internet. They did this to allow uploading results from four regional elections offices across the county. To be clear, it appears that results were modemed in to the regional stations from the precincts. The regional stations were reportedly connected to the county network. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this security violation. This practice is flat banned in California and many other states, and may or may not be illegal in Tennessee...we’re checking on that. As a practical matter, this allowed anybody sitting at a county PC to get to and manipulate the central vote tabulator database. With this final insult, it can be plainly stated that this wasn’t an election. It was a hacking contest, open to whoever was most efficient and motivated to alter vote totals. The number of potential vote fraud perpetrators was literally enormous. Regardless of whether or not vote manipulation was caught and proven, no possible perpetrator could be caught. It's hard to explain these violations of both law and known standard security practices in election processing. Win or lose, candidates Shep Wilbun, Sondra Becton, Vernon Johnson and Otis Jackson have performed a valuable service for their community in exposing some of the most irregular and illegal electronic voting procedures in America today. Nobody else in the Tennessee elections process did their jobs except for these four candidates and a handful of citizen supporters and researchers. These candidates performed another exceptional service when they went to court and obtained the most recent GEMS database to date. You can download it here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/44189.html It should be noted that this is NOT the election night database. We were not allowed to take a copy of that. This is, however, represented to be a real and final version of the Shelby County elections database.
Mustering Election Fraud Blog
Citizen-gathered evidence shows an increasing likelihood of electoral fraudTuesday, October 10th, 2006
It’s going to be up to us to make the case. We can’t solve a problem if we refuse to look. Citizens are fed up with black box elections, and are mustering up evidence of improper behavior that will swing the pendulum back in the direction it belongs.
Examples of the astonishing evidence uncovered by candidates and extraordinary citizens follows.
At first, we proved that the machines “theoretically’ could be tampered with. Then, in experiments in Leon County and Emery County, citizen-led investigations machines could ACTUALLY be tampered with.
At first, public records requests from Black Box Voting and others proved that election results were not authenticatable using available audit records. And now, Black Box Voting and citizens are coming up with audit records that show strong indications of improper behavior.
Be aware that we are not going to see a Perry Mason moment. Proof of corruption will be incremental, but it will come.
In 2006, your job will be to embark on the biggest citizen evidence-gathering expedition in history, to take this past the tipping point and achieve real change. Nothing will do but a reversal of the pendulum, back to citizen ownership and oversight of our own government and its electoral processes.
Let’s take a look now at some of the evidence citizens — and Black Box Voting — are uncovering:
1. Memphis: Candidates in Memphis asked Black Box Voting for help securing public records from the Aug. 3, 2006 election. Black Box Voting recommended getting a copy of the Diebold GEMS database, along with the Windows event log. What we found shocked us: The sheer number of legal and security violations in the event log were horrifying, and it also showed that Shelby County — or someone — was accessing the file during the middle of a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting this.
- A remote access program called PC Anywhere was found resident in the system- Evidence of insertion of an encrypted Lexar Jump Drive was present- Evidence of attempts to alter or write HTML files (used to report results) was present- Apparently without a firewall, the GEMS system was opened up to the County Network- A prohibited program, Microsoft Access, which makes editing the election chimpanzee-easy, was installed on the system AND USED shortly after the election.
To read more about Memphis, click here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/44242.html
The following is only part of what is posted at the above link;
2) On 8/7/06 somebody loaded a complete copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2000. This would include the MS-Access program long known as the simplest way to edit the contents of a Diebold central vote database (and banned for use in elections in virtually all jurisdictions nationwide). 3) On 8/22/06 for a period of over an hour -- and during a time period for which a Temporary Restraining Order was in effect -- somebody attempted to edit HTML data files. The only significant HTML files on a Diebold main server are vote total reports. The only reason any trace was left was because the HTML editing tools failed to load – they either broke somehow or weren’t loaded correctly. Either way, it suggests that somebody may have been hand-editing vote total reports, and that’s potentially very significant. For example: GEMS creates reports of vote tallies throughout election night, in either HTML or PDF formats. An editor for PDF data is included on the GEMS main server as shipped by Diebold, and HTML editors are easy to get. Those tally reports could be easily edited on election night, shifting the apparent vote totals, and then the main GEMS database could be hand-edited to match the false reports across most of the day after the election, to be illicitly uploaded via the password-protected Jumpdrive.
A Final Shelby County Fact (based on election official depositions): 4) At 6:30pm on election day, the GEMS main server was cross-connected to the main county computer network, which in turn has a cross-connection to the main Internet. They did this to allow uploading results from four regional elections offices across the county. To be clear, it appears that results were modemed in to the regional stations from the precincts. The regional stations were reportedly connected to the county network. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this security violation. This practice is flat banned in California and many other states, and may or may not be illegal in Tennessee...we’re checking on that. As a practical matter, this allowed anybody sitting at a county PC to get to and manipulate the central vote tabulator database. With this final insult, it can be plainly stated that this wasn’t an election. It was a hacking contest, open to whoever was most efficient and motivated to alter vote totals. The number of potential vote fraud perpetrators was literally enormous. Regardless of whether or not vote manipulation was caught and proven, no possible perpetrator could be caught. It's hard to explain these violations of both law and known standard security practices in election processing. Win or lose, candidates Shep Wilbun, Sondra Becton, Vernon Johnson and Otis Jackson have performed a valuable service for their community in exposing some of the most irregular and illegal electronic voting procedures in America today. Nobody else in the Tennessee elections process did their jobs except for these four candidates and a handful of citizen supporters and researchers. These candidates performed another exceptional service when they went to court and obtained the most recent GEMS database to date. You can download it here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/44189.html It should be noted that this is NOT the election night database. We were not allowed to take a copy of that. This is, however, represented to be a real and final version of the Shelby County elections database.
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care - NYTimes.com
Finally, President Obama is joining the debate on Health Care. Of course, Republicans don't want a Public option, and just want the for profit companies to be able to hold on to their 30% administrative costs, the health and solvency of the people in this country don't matter to them.
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care - NYTimes.com
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 6, 2009
WASHINGTON — After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers, senior White House officials say.
Mindful of the failures of former President Bill Clinton, whose intricate proposal for universal care collapsed on Capitol Hill 15 years ago, Mr. Obama until now had charted a different course, setting forth broad principles and concentrating on bringing disparate factions — doctors, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, labor unions — to the negotiating table.
But Mr. Obama has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector, said one Democrat familiar with his thinking. With Congress beginning a burst of work on the measure, top advisers say, the president is determined to make certain the final bill bears his stamp.
“Ultimately, as happened with the recovery act, it will become President Obama’s plan,” the White House budget director, Peter R. Orszag, said in an interview. “I think you will see that evolution occurring over the next few weeks. We will be weighing in more definitively, and you will see him out there.”
On Saturday, while Mr. Obama was traveling in Europe, he used his weekly radio and Internet address to make the case that “the status quo is broken” and to set forth his ambitious goals.
Broadly speaking, he wants to extend coverage to the 45 million uninsured while lowering costs, improving quality and preserving consumer choice. His budget includes what he called a “historic down payment” of $634 billion over 10 years, accomplished mostly by slowing Medicare growth and limiting tax breaks for those with high incomes.
“We must attack the root causes of skyrocketing health costs,” Mr. Obama said, pointing to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and other institutions as among those that offer high-quality care at low cost. “We should learn from their successes and promote the best practices, not the most expensive ones. That’s how we’ll achieve reform that fixes what doesn’t work and builds on what does.”
The radio address was the start of a public relations campaign coinciding with a 50-state grass-roots effort that Organizing for America, the president’s political group, began Saturday to promote a health care overhaul. His hope is to provide what his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, called “air cover” for lawmakers to adopt his priorities. It is a gamble by the White House that Mr. Obama can translate his approval ratings into legislative action.
“Obviously,” Mr. Emanuel said, “the president’s adoption of something makes it easier to vote for, because he’s — let’s be honest — popular, and the public trusts him.”
But as Mr. Obama wades into the details of the legislative debate — a process that began last week when he released a letter staking out certain specific policy positions for the first time — he will face increasingly difficult choices and risks.
Aides say he will not dictate the fine print. “It was never his intent to come to Congress with stone tablets,“ said his senior adviser, David Axelrod. But he will increasingly make his preferences known.
If he embraces a tax on employee benefits, an idea he attacked when he was running for president, he may infuriate labor and the middle class. If he insists on a big-government plan in the image of Medicare, he could lose any hope of Republican support and ignite an insurance industry backlash. If he does not come up with credible ways to pay for his plan, which by some estimates could cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, moderate Democrats could balk.
Many Republicans are already angry over the emphasis Mr. Obama placed on the public plan in last week’s letter. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Friday that “the key to a bipartisan bill is not to have a government plan in the bill.”....More at link above
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care - NYTimes.com
Obama to Forge a Greater Role on Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 6, 2009
WASHINGTON — After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers, senior White House officials say.
Mindful of the failures of former President Bill Clinton, whose intricate proposal for universal care collapsed on Capitol Hill 15 years ago, Mr. Obama until now had charted a different course, setting forth broad principles and concentrating on bringing disparate factions — doctors, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, labor unions — to the negotiating table.
But Mr. Obama has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector, said one Democrat familiar with his thinking. With Congress beginning a burst of work on the measure, top advisers say, the president is determined to make certain the final bill bears his stamp.
“Ultimately, as happened with the recovery act, it will become President Obama’s plan,” the White House budget director, Peter R. Orszag, said in an interview. “I think you will see that evolution occurring over the next few weeks. We will be weighing in more definitively, and you will see him out there.”
On Saturday, while Mr. Obama was traveling in Europe, he used his weekly radio and Internet address to make the case that “the status quo is broken” and to set forth his ambitious goals.
Broadly speaking, he wants to extend coverage to the 45 million uninsured while lowering costs, improving quality and preserving consumer choice. His budget includes what he called a “historic down payment” of $634 billion over 10 years, accomplished mostly by slowing Medicare growth and limiting tax breaks for those with high incomes.
“We must attack the root causes of skyrocketing health costs,” Mr. Obama said, pointing to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and other institutions as among those that offer high-quality care at low cost. “We should learn from their successes and promote the best practices, not the most expensive ones. That’s how we’ll achieve reform that fixes what doesn’t work and builds on what does.”
The radio address was the start of a public relations campaign coinciding with a 50-state grass-roots effort that Organizing for America, the president’s political group, began Saturday to promote a health care overhaul. His hope is to provide what his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, called “air cover” for lawmakers to adopt his priorities. It is a gamble by the White House that Mr. Obama can translate his approval ratings into legislative action.
“Obviously,” Mr. Emanuel said, “the president’s adoption of something makes it easier to vote for, because he’s — let’s be honest — popular, and the public trusts him.”
But as Mr. Obama wades into the details of the legislative debate — a process that began last week when he released a letter staking out certain specific policy positions for the first time — he will face increasingly difficult choices and risks.
Aides say he will not dictate the fine print. “It was never his intent to come to Congress with stone tablets,“ said his senior adviser, David Axelrod. But he will increasingly make his preferences known.
If he embraces a tax on employee benefits, an idea he attacked when he was running for president, he may infuriate labor and the middle class. If he insists on a big-government plan in the image of Medicare, he could lose any hope of Republican support and ignite an insurance industry backlash. If he does not come up with credible ways to pay for his plan, which by some estimates could cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years, moderate Democrats could balk.
Many Republicans are already angry over the emphasis Mr. Obama placed on the public plan in last week’s letter. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said Friday that “the key to a bipartisan bill is not to have a government plan in the bill.”....More at link above
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Feds Hunting For Right Wing Extremist On A Mission To Kill The President
While right wingers were busy getting all if a huff because of the recent Homeland Security Report about the right wing extremists, which may be viewed here , the guys that the report was about have been really busy proving it to be true. Not only did right wing groups like Operation Rescue applaud Dr. Tiller's murder, but they aided Scott Roeder in tracking Tiller's court dates and his whereabouts. Below is another chilling story about a man who has told people that he was "part of a mission" to kill President Obama.
Feds hunting for right-wing extremist 'on a mission to kill the president'By David Neiwert Friday Jun 05, 2009 2:00pm
Now here is a disturbing story:
Federal authorities in Utah are searching for a man who allegedly made threats against President Obama.
Daniel James Murray has been charged with making threats against Obama, after telling a bank teller he was part of a "mission" to kill the president. The Secret Service says Murray has at least eight registered firearms. His whereabouts are unknown.
Murray entered Zion's First National Bank in St. George, Utah, May 19, to open a savings account with an $85,000 check, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Salt Lake City today.
Murray allegedly asked if the bank was solvent and then stated, according to the complaint, "With all this mess going on under President Obama with banks and the economy, I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths."
Sounds like someone who's been watching Glenn Beck, doesn't it?
On May 27, the complaint states, Murray came back to withdraw $12,698 from his savings account. He did not have proper identification and was told he needed it to complete the transaction. He allegedly said, "Not to be disrespectful, but if I don't get this money, someone is going to die."
The bank manager allowed the transaction, and Murray allegedly demanded bills smaller than $50 in non-sequential order.
Murray then said, "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," according to the complaint.Murray told the teller during that visit, the complaint added, "We are 94 million miles from the sun, and are in-between the sun and moon, and the eagle that flies between them, and it's a giant step for mankind. ... I have traveled thousands of miles to be here and know things that are going to happen. ... The banking system will fail and people will die. ... There will be chaos in the world."
The next day, according to the complaint, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account.
But perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole story is this:
A Secret Service spokesman said there will be no further comment on the case because it involves protective intelligence.
"This is one of a gazillion cases," the spokesman told ABC News. "It's not that out of the ordinary. We see this day in and day out."
Somehow, I find that less than comforting.
The Salt Lake Tribune has more.
Feds hunting for right-wing extremist 'on a mission to kill the president'By David Neiwert Friday Jun 05, 2009 2:00pm
Now here is a disturbing story:
Federal authorities in Utah are searching for a man who allegedly made threats against President Obama.
Daniel James Murray has been charged with making threats against Obama, after telling a bank teller he was part of a "mission" to kill the president. The Secret Service says Murray has at least eight registered firearms. His whereabouts are unknown.
Murray entered Zion's First National Bank in St. George, Utah, May 19, to open a savings account with an $85,000 check, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Salt Lake City today.
Murray allegedly asked if the bank was solvent and then stated, according to the complaint, "With all this mess going on under President Obama with banks and the economy, I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths."
Sounds like someone who's been watching Glenn Beck, doesn't it?
On May 27, the complaint states, Murray came back to withdraw $12,698 from his savings account. He did not have proper identification and was told he needed it to complete the transaction. He allegedly said, "Not to be disrespectful, but if I don't get this money, someone is going to die."
The bank manager allowed the transaction, and Murray allegedly demanded bills smaller than $50 in non-sequential order.
Murray then said, "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," according to the complaint.Murray told the teller during that visit, the complaint added, "We are 94 million miles from the sun, and are in-between the sun and moon, and the eagle that flies between them, and it's a giant step for mankind. ... I have traveled thousands of miles to be here and know things that are going to happen. ... The banking system will fail and people will die. ... There will be chaos in the world."
The next day, according to the complaint, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account.
But perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole story is this:
A Secret Service spokesman said there will be no further comment on the case because it involves protective intelligence.
"This is one of a gazillion cases," the spokesman told ABC News. "It's not that out of the ordinary. We see this day in and day out."
Somehow, I find that less than comforting.
The Salt Lake Tribune has more.
Our Health Care System Is Broken And We Have To Fix It
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that our health care system is broken. The recent Harvard study below reveals how bad the problem is. It's hard enough to be seriously ill, with a chronic condition that will never go away, and medicine only alleviates the pain and misery to a degree. Or just think about if you have an accident with major injuries. What a miserable, soul-crushing existence the medical problems are, only to be exacerbated by the knowledge that you could lose everything you've worked for all your life.
It's broke, and we have to fix it.
Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy
Harvard researchers say 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2007 were caused by health problems—and 78% of those filers had insurance
By Catherine Arnst
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db2009064_666715.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.
Medically related bankruptcies have been rising steadily for decades. In 1981, only 8% of families filing for bankruptcy cited a serious medical problem as the reason, while a 2001 study of bankruptcies in five states by the same researchers found that illness or medical bills contributed to 50% of all filings. This newest, nationwide study, conducted before the start of the current recession by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School, Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, and Deborah Thorne, a sociology professor at Ohio University, found that the filers were for the most part solidly middle class before medical disaster hit. Two-thirds owned their home and three-fifths had gone to college.
But medically bankrupt families with private insurance reported average out-of pocket medical bills of $17,749, while the uninsured's bills averaged $26,971. Of the families who started out with insurance but lost it during the course of their illness, medical bills averaged $22,658. "For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments, and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse," said lead author Himmelstein. "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy."
The study underscores President Barack Obama's arguments in calling for health-care reform legislation this year. In a letter to Democratic Senate leaders this week, the President said: "Health-care reform is not a luxury. It's a necessity we cannot defer. Soaring health-care costs make our current course unsustainable. It is unsustainable for our families, whose spiraling premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are pushing them into bankruptcy and forcing them to go without the checkups and prescriptions they need."
More at the link above...
It's broke, and we have to fix it.
Study Links Medical Costs and Personal Bankruptcy
Harvard researchers say 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2007 were caused by health problems—and 78% of those filers had insurance
By Catherine Arnst
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2009/db2009064_666715.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.
Medically related bankruptcies have been rising steadily for decades. In 1981, only 8% of families filing for bankruptcy cited a serious medical problem as the reason, while a 2001 study of bankruptcies in five states by the same researchers found that illness or medical bills contributed to 50% of all filings. This newest, nationwide study, conducted before the start of the current recession by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School, Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, and Deborah Thorne, a sociology professor at Ohio University, found that the filers were for the most part solidly middle class before medical disaster hit. Two-thirds owned their home and three-fifths had gone to college.
But medically bankrupt families with private insurance reported average out-of pocket medical bills of $17,749, while the uninsured's bills averaged $26,971. Of the families who started out with insurance but lost it during the course of their illness, medical bills averaged $22,658. "For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments, and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse," said lead author Himmelstein. "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy."
The study underscores President Barack Obama's arguments in calling for health-care reform legislation this year. In a letter to Democratic Senate leaders this week, the President said: "Health-care reform is not a luxury. It's a necessity we cannot defer. Soaring health-care costs make our current course unsustainable. It is unsustainable for our families, whose spiraling premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are pushing them into bankruptcy and forcing them to go without the checkups and prescriptions they need."
More at the link above...
Friday, June 5, 2009
Who Wants To Get Get Caught In The Crossfire?
Friday, June 5, 2009
Who Wants To Get Get Caught In The Crossfire?
I believe it is the right of American citizens to own firearms. I believe it is the right of American citizens to go hunting where it is safe and legal. I don't think it's very wise to allow guns in restaurants or bars where unknowing and innocent citizens can be caught in the crossfire of "White Hats" and "Black Hats". Unfortunately, our Tennessee Legislature has decided that alcohol and guns make for a warm, fuzzy atmosphere. HB0962 was initially vetoed by Governor Bredesen, but was over ridden 69-27 in the House, and 21-9 in the Senate.The purpose of this blog is to list those restaurants that choose not to allow guns in their establishment. We laud these establishments who stand up for a safe environment for their patrons to come and enjoy the food, drink, and atmosphere without having to fear some macho testosterone and alcohol fueled gun-fighter shooting up the place because the waitress got the order mixed up.
I believe that the "guns in bars" bill is a business killer. Please help those who are interested in dining in a "gun free" zone compile a list of Safe Tri-Cities Restaurants. Please visit the site above and add any safe restaurants to the list. It is a new blog, so let's get it going!!
Who Wants To Get Get Caught In The Crossfire?
I believe it is the right of American citizens to own firearms. I believe it is the right of American citizens to go hunting where it is safe and legal. I don't think it's very wise to allow guns in restaurants or bars where unknowing and innocent citizens can be caught in the crossfire of "White Hats" and "Black Hats". Unfortunately, our Tennessee Legislature has decided that alcohol and guns make for a warm, fuzzy atmosphere. HB0962 was initially vetoed by Governor Bredesen, but was over ridden 69-27 in the House, and 21-9 in the Senate.The purpose of this blog is to list those restaurants that choose not to allow guns in their establishment. We laud these establishments who stand up for a safe environment for their patrons to come and enjoy the food, drink, and atmosphere without having to fear some macho testosterone and alcohol fueled gun-fighter shooting up the place because the waitress got the order mixed up.
I believe that the "guns in bars" bill is a business killer. Please help those who are interested in dining in a "gun free" zone compile a list of Safe Tri-Cities Restaurants. Please visit the site above and add any safe restaurants to the list. It is a new blog, so let's get it going!!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Open Letter To Tennessee Senators and Representatives
Dear Legislators and Governor Bredesen,
I write to remind you that there is no legitimate cause for delay inproviding me and my fellow voters with verifiable ballots. As thelegislative session nears its close, I urge you and your colleagues towork together to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act requires that by 2010 all votes becast on paper ballots marked by the voter, and it requires hand-counted tabulation audits of computer vote tallies. Tennessee has the federal funds on hand to purchase paper ballot scanners and accessible ballot markers for every county. If paper ballot voting is delayed and there is an issue in the 2010 elections that cannot be resolved because there is no way to check the accuracy of electronic vote tallies, the decision to delay will be catastrophic. No other state with the funds to provide voter-verifiable paper records is backing away from the promise of trustworthy elections. In Kentucky, Secretary of State Trey Greyson has in the last year urged counties to adopt paper ballot voting systems, and over 50 counties have done so.The state of Maryland, financially strapped like all states, still decided this year to move forward with the purchase of paper ballot scanners for use in the 2010 elections. Tennessee has the funds; it is time to finish the job the Assembly began last year in passing the Voter Confidence Act. In all, almost three fourths of the states have taken action to verify the vote. Tennessee voters should not be among a shrinking minority of Americans forced to depend upon insecure and unverifiable voting systems. Almost 60% of America's voters cast their votes by marking paper ballots, and that number will increase in the 2010 elections. From Alabama to California, from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, paper ballot voting systems have proven their reliability. You need look no further than our neighboring state of Virginia toremind yourself of how important it is to follow through on the promiseof the Voter Confidence Act. Earlier this year in Fairfax County,Virginia, a county Board of Supervisors election was conducted onpaperless electronic machines, and in one precinct, there werediscrepancies of hundreds of votes that still remain unexplained. Acounty election official was left to say to the Virginia press:"Nothing like this has ever happened before. We don't know if themachines malfunctioned or if we did something wrong."That is not a situation Tennessee should find itself in come 2010.Hand-counted audits are no less important to election integrity than paper ballots, a statement backed by computer scientists from government laboratories such as Lawrence Livermore, from leading universities suchas Rice, the University of Iowa, and Stanford, and from private sector firms that lead the field of computer security. 22 states and theDistrict of Columbia conducted random hand audits of the 2008 elections,and more will do so in 2010 -- including Tennessee if you do not weaken our law. This week, please ensure that I am able to vote in a manner that allows real verification. Please follow through on the commitments of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.
I write to remind you that there is no legitimate cause for delay inproviding me and my fellow voters with verifiable ballots. As thelegislative session nears its close, I urge you and your colleagues towork together to implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act requires that by 2010 all votes becast on paper ballots marked by the voter, and it requires hand-counted tabulation audits of computer vote tallies. Tennessee has the federal funds on hand to purchase paper ballot scanners and accessible ballot markers for every county. If paper ballot voting is delayed and there is an issue in the 2010 elections that cannot be resolved because there is no way to check the accuracy of electronic vote tallies, the decision to delay will be catastrophic. No other state with the funds to provide voter-verifiable paper records is backing away from the promise of trustworthy elections. In Kentucky, Secretary of State Trey Greyson has in the last year urged counties to adopt paper ballot voting systems, and over 50 counties have done so.The state of Maryland, financially strapped like all states, still decided this year to move forward with the purchase of paper ballot scanners for use in the 2010 elections. Tennessee has the funds; it is time to finish the job the Assembly began last year in passing the Voter Confidence Act. In all, almost three fourths of the states have taken action to verify the vote. Tennessee voters should not be among a shrinking minority of Americans forced to depend upon insecure and unverifiable voting systems. Almost 60% of America's voters cast their votes by marking paper ballots, and that number will increase in the 2010 elections. From Alabama to California, from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, paper ballot voting systems have proven their reliability. You need look no further than our neighboring state of Virginia toremind yourself of how important it is to follow through on the promiseof the Voter Confidence Act. Earlier this year in Fairfax County,Virginia, a county Board of Supervisors election was conducted onpaperless electronic machines, and in one precinct, there werediscrepancies of hundreds of votes that still remain unexplained. Acounty election official was left to say to the Virginia press:"Nothing like this has ever happened before. We don't know if themachines malfunctioned or if we did something wrong."That is not a situation Tennessee should find itself in come 2010.Hand-counted audits are no less important to election integrity than paper ballots, a statement backed by computer scientists from government laboratories such as Lawrence Livermore, from leading universities suchas Rice, the University of Iowa, and Stanford, and from private sector firms that lead the field of computer security. 22 states and theDistrict of Columbia conducted random hand audits of the 2008 elections,and more will do so in 2010 -- including Tennessee if you do not weaken our law. This week, please ensure that I am able to vote in a manner that allows real verification. Please follow through on the commitments of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
June 2nd Important Day For Verifiable Voting!
Important day for verifiable voting!
From VerifiedVoting.org
We need you to act again today to demand trustworthy voting in Tennessee. This is an important week for the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.
Thank you if you have already urged Tennessee lawmakers to protect your ballot in 2010 and follow through on the promise of the Voter Confidence Act. We are making progress: last week's vote in Senate committee was closer than expected. Today, June 2, a House subcommittee will again take up legislation to delay the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act. The full Senate may vote this week.
If you have not acted yet, now is the time! Please take a moment to visit the Verified Voting Action Center and send a message to lawmakers urging them to follow through on the promise of paper ballots and hand-counted audits in 2010:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27351
Urge your Representatives and Senators to keep the Voter Confidence Act intact. Your message will go to your own lawmakers, to leadership and other key members of the House and Senate, and to Governor Bredesen.
Please take 60 seconds out of your busy day to contact your lawmakers -- it's free and it's easy, and it will make a big difference.
Take action today! Visit the VerifiedVoting.org Action Center at
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27351
Thank you for for all you do.
The Team at Verified Voting
Legislation
May 9, 2006: Here's the latest on the "Tennessee Voter Confidence Act" -- though the bills didn't clear the legislature this session, a Senate Joint Resolution was filed (SJR0745) to establish a study committee "to study the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act and issues related thereto." The "whereas-es" are great:
WHEREAS, numerous examples of electronic voting equipment malfunctioning have been documented, including recently; and
WHEREAS, without a voter-verified paper ballot of record, it is impossible for the voter to have confidence that his or her vote is counted as intended or to have a valid source document for an audit or recount; and
WHEREAS, several states have required a version of voter-verified paper ballot; and
WHEREAS, federal legislation is pending to require the use of such ballots; and
WHEREAS, such a system has been used successfully for years in Hamilton County; and
WHEREAS, such a system is less costly than direct recording electronic voting
machines; and
WHEREAS, Federal Help America Vote Act funds have been allocated to Tennessee for upgrading election equipment; and
WHEREAS, if the pending federal legislation becomes law or if Tennessee officials subsequently agree that such ballots are needed in order to increase the confidence of voters or to provide adequate source documentation for any audit or recount, significant expenditures will be needed to replace or upgrade equipment; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that there is hereby created a special joint committee to perform a comprehensive analysis of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act of 2006, which was filed as Senate Bill 3457 and House Bill 3211, and the issue of voter-verified paper ballots in Tennessee.
The Speakers of each chamber will appoint three members each to participate, who have demonstrated interest in this issue. The resolution also says interested and affected groups and associates may be asked for info, analyses and recommendations.
SJR0745 has passed the Senate as gone to Finance Committee (as of May 3). This is positive movement in the right direction for Tennessee.
From VerifiedVoting.org
We need you to act again today to demand trustworthy voting in Tennessee. This is an important week for the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.
Thank you if you have already urged Tennessee lawmakers to protect your ballot in 2010 and follow through on the promise of the Voter Confidence Act. We are making progress: last week's vote in Senate committee was closer than expected. Today, June 2, a House subcommittee will again take up legislation to delay the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act. The full Senate may vote this week.
If you have not acted yet, now is the time! Please take a moment to visit the Verified Voting Action Center and send a message to lawmakers urging them to follow through on the promise of paper ballots and hand-counted audits in 2010:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27351
Urge your Representatives and Senators to keep the Voter Confidence Act intact. Your message will go to your own lawmakers, to leadership and other key members of the House and Senate, and to Governor Bredesen.
Please take 60 seconds out of your busy day to contact your lawmakers -- it's free and it's easy, and it will make a big difference.
Take action today! Visit the VerifiedVoting.org Action Center at
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27351
Thank you for for all you do.
The Team at Verified Voting
Legislation
May 9, 2006: Here's the latest on the "Tennessee Voter Confidence Act" -- though the bills didn't clear the legislature this session, a Senate Joint Resolution was filed (SJR0745) to establish a study committee "to study the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act and issues related thereto." The "whereas-es" are great:
WHEREAS, numerous examples of electronic voting equipment malfunctioning have been documented, including recently; and
WHEREAS, without a voter-verified paper ballot of record, it is impossible for the voter to have confidence that his or her vote is counted as intended or to have a valid source document for an audit or recount; and
WHEREAS, several states have required a version of voter-verified paper ballot; and
WHEREAS, federal legislation is pending to require the use of such ballots; and
WHEREAS, such a system has been used successfully for years in Hamilton County; and
WHEREAS, such a system is less costly than direct recording electronic voting
machines; and
WHEREAS, Federal Help America Vote Act funds have been allocated to Tennessee for upgrading election equipment; and
WHEREAS, if the pending federal legislation becomes law or if Tennessee officials subsequently agree that such ballots are needed in order to increase the confidence of voters or to provide adequate source documentation for any audit or recount, significant expenditures will be needed to replace or upgrade equipment; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, that there is hereby created a special joint committee to perform a comprehensive analysis of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act of 2006, which was filed as Senate Bill 3457 and House Bill 3211, and the issue of voter-verified paper ballots in Tennessee.
The Speakers of each chamber will appoint three members each to participate, who have demonstrated interest in this issue. The resolution also says interested and affected groups and associates may be asked for info, analyses and recommendations.
SJR0745 has passed the Senate as gone to Finance Committee (as of May 3). This is positive movement in the right direction for Tennessee.
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