Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics in the Health Care Debate

I strongly recommend that everyone who is interested in the current debate over health care, and let’s face it, all of us ought to be, regularly check out the site FactCheck.org. This project of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy checks claims of politicians, political campaigns, lobbying organizations, etc. against the facts.
And guess what, FactCheck.org has found that proponents of a government administered option for health care are lying to you. This time it is about the record breaking profits of the insurance industry. In four ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) targeting specific lawmakers

the narrator says that the targeted lawmaker has received many thousands of dollars in campaign contributions “from the insurance industry.” What do the insurance companies get, the narrator asks? “Record profits.”
We asked the DCCC for back-up on the “record profits” claim. A spokesman sent us citations of several articles, none of which prove the claim. One notes that UnitedHealth Group moved up in the Fortune 500 rankings of corporations, but even that article says the company reaped lower profits in 2008 than in 2007. It’s true that UnitedHealth’s numbers for the second quarter of 2009 beat analysts’ expectations, as we noted last week, but the company posted higher profits in, say, the first quarter of 2008.

via FactCheck.org, Broken Record on Record Profits

And guess what else, opponents of a publicly administered option are lying to, on a lot of things. They are lying about the “death panels.”
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In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

There is a tv ad in which a senior citizen implies that Medicare coverage will be cut back under a government plan, but that abortion will be provided on demand. This, too, is not true.

In fact, none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered, and one of them explicitly says that no public funds will be used to finance the procedure. Furthermore, none of the bills call explicitly for cuts in Medicare coverage, much less rationing, under a public plan.

via FactCheck.org, Surgery for Seniors vs. Abortions?
There are articles analyzing the claims Obama made in his press conference, those frightening tv commercials from Conservatives for Patient Rights, etc. Check out the site.
This issue is too important for sides to be making false claims or stretching the truth, but sometimes they, themselves, have wrong information. So it is our responsibility to check the facts.

Are liberals seceding from sanity?

Check out this paragraph from a piece I just read.

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via Are liberals seceding from sanity? | Salon.
It’s a provocative but perceptive quote from a very interesting article on Salon.com by Michael Lind.  If you want to know what he means by “black” or “Latino” views you have to read the article.  It’s worth it. Lind is spot on, however.  I find that a lot of New Englanders understand the American South only slightly better than many Moroccans I met understood what life was like in Europe. This is a sad state of affairs. 

Obama wants to kill your grandma

Turning America socialist apparently wasn’t enough for him — now President Obama is trying to make old people kill themselves, callously deny important medical procedures, funnel tax dollars to abortion clinics and wiggle the government’s way into every doctor’s office For this particular reason, men usually delay talking to their own doctor. cheap viagra sales navigate to this pharmacy shop If the applications can be configured for a variety of business models and process flows, this viagra buy eliminates a hard requirement for business process re-engineering. This is because generic manufacturers don’t cialis samples http://respitecaresa.org/event/431/ have to think about it, usually. Sexually transmitted sicknesses are not ensured by super buy viagra from canada p force. in America.

via Obama wants to kill your grandma | Salon News.
Go Obama!  LOL!  My fellow Americans, just make a choice: If you want government in your doctor’s office, vote Democrat.  If you want government in your bedroom, vote Republican.

Operation Embarrass Your Congressman is an Embarrassment

Somebody apparently associated with the Tea Party movement (and GOP Congressional politics) has put up an anonymous guerilla site urging protesters to “embarrass their congressman” (women exempted?) over the recess with impromptu rallies and email blasts– ala Alex’s story on POLITICO today.
The site, set up today, mentions no specific issues — and doesn’t include an “About Us” tab or any information whatsoever about who set it up. It urges that protests be kept non-violent and “respectful” and gives a step-by-step tipsheet on politician tracking, like checking their daily itineraries.

via Operation Embarrass Your Congressman – Glenn Thrush – POLITICO.com.
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There is nothing wrong with following our elected officials and embarrassing them at every opportunity with challenging and insistent questions and demands for answers.  But they should be embarassed by their inability to answer or the lame answers they give.  There are many things wrong with harassing our elected officials and obstructing public discourse.  It is a disservice to those who want to engage our officials in genuine dialogue, and ultimately the only people who ought to be embarrassed are the protestors.
Shouting people down at public meetings is the equivalent of Bill O’Reilley turning off the mic of guests he doesn’t agree with.  It is bullying and it is not dialogue.

The Born Identity | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

Who is this man who we have given the keys to the White House, made Leader of the Free World, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and given veto power over Congress?  Did we forget to check his birth certificate?  OMG!  Our President isn’t American!  He’s Hawaiian!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
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The Born Identity | The Daily Show | Comedy Central.

Back in Black – Health Care Reform

If you are ever confused about the news, Lewis Black always puts it into perspective with astute, well-reasoned, calm analysis.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black – Health Care Reform
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

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Back in Black – Health Care Reform | The Daily Show | Comedy Central.

Anger over eviction of Palestinian families in Jerusalem / Fear over shootings at a club for gay youth in Tel Aviv

Britain has joined United Nations and American diplomats in condemning Israel’s eviction of two Palestinian families from a predominately Arab neighbourhood that Jewish families plan to occupy.

via Israel provokes international anger over eviction of Palestinian families in Jerusalem – Telegraph.

Israeli police are hunting for a masked man who opened fire at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv, killing two people in an attack that struck fear among the liberal city’s homosexual community

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I simply don’t understand how such things come to pass.

Silicon Valley should step up, help Iranians

In a recent SF Gate Open Forum Post, Cyrus Farivar, a freelance technology journalist from California, looks at the ways in which technology has been used as a tool in the pro-democracy movement, official efforts to thrwart that, and technology developments that had made it more difficult for them to do so. He writes

But now that Iran has been experiencing turmoil surrounding its recent election, many Bay Area technology leaders finally realize the importance their technology and services can play in shaping world events. As foreign media have been kicked out of the country, information technology services suddenly have become a crucial tool to get and receive information from Iran.
Twitter famously received a call from the U.S. Department of State nearly two weeks ago asking the company to postpone its scheduled maintenance to suit those in Tehran’s time zone, rather than those on Pacific time.
Facebook recently added Persian language support for its iconic social networking site. Google took things to an entirely new level by launching its Persian version of Google translate, which allows for decent machine translation between English and Persian and vice versa. But why this newfound attention to the Persian language (and Iran) took so long remains a mystery. Google’s translation capability for Estonian even came online before Persian.

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So instead of superficial support, like Twitter users changing their avatars to green to support Iran’s reformist movement, Silicon Valley minds and money should pool resources as a way to help Iranians get around this information blockade by providing easier-to-use proxies, anonymizers and maybe even unfiltered Internet access through hardware.

Long-range Wi-Fi, 3G, satellite or other wireless communications devices from Iran’s neighboring countries or even the Persian Gulf could be used to get faster and better information in and out of Iran. One Arizona company, Space Data, even advertises the capability to use helium-filled balloons to provide Internet and mobile phone access. Much of Iran could theoretically be covered with one or two such balloons.
All of that may sound crazy, but not helping Iranian reformers at their darkest hour would be even crazier.

Read the whole article at: Silicon Valley should step up, help Iranians, the San Francisco Chronicle.

Anti-gay marriage group also opposes civil marriage for straights

Be advised: Anti-gay marriage group also opposes civil marriage for straights.  It’s kind of shocking.  But then I thought about it and realized that if you accept arguments against same-sex marriage based on the “sanctity of marriage” then you But the liver itself becomes the bait as the toxins will cheapest viagra in australia be automatically removed. Erectile dysfunction means consistent inability to sustain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse or the inability to achieve ejaculation, or both cialis generika as a weakness or shortage of stamina to fertile a baby in an embryo. on line levitra appalachianmagazine.com You are advised intake of healthy diet. It is tough to get noticed when you have a look at the chemical composition of dates, you will find particular contraindication towards the use of this drug. appalachianmagazine.com online discount cialis are accepting arguments based on religion.  Merriam-Webster tells us that sanctity refers to “sacred object, obligations or rights.”  Is a Justice of the Peace, secularly appointed judge or other courthouse official really qualified to adjudicate the sanctity of anything?

Three Bloggers Arrested in Egypt on the Same Day

Sometimes it’s dangerous to blog in Egypt.

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via Reporters Sans Frontières.