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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron who wrote (236140)	10/29/2013 4:07:06 PM
From: Alex MG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543151

can't imagine how all this misinformation gets passed around oh, what's this? Suzanne Somers is an "expert" writer on Obamacare for the Wall St Journal yes, the over-the-hill actress from "Three's Company" is an economic expert on healthcare nymag.com ".....even by the Journal’s meager intellectual standards, Somers’s op-ed goes badly, badly awry. I would strongly urge any readers to take 90 seconds from their day to read Somers’s entire column. Her basic premise appears to be that Obamacare is aimed primarily, and perhaps entirely, at retirees: Affordable care will allow for pre-existing conditions. That’s the good part for retirees. But, let’s get down and dirty; the word “affordable” is a misnomer. So far, all you are hearing on the news is how everyone’s premiums are doubling and tripling and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that the whole thing is a big mess. … So, is affordable care a good thing for retirees? Perhaps over time, it might work if you don’t get too old and you don’t get too sick, and you don’t live too long. But frankly, the economic ramifications with our already swollen debt load don’t add up. Retirees who are on Medicare will suffer the consequences of 700 billions of Medicare dollars instead being used to cover the skyrocketing cost of Obamacare. In essence, less dollars for seniors, means less service. Not fair. The Boomers are going to take the “hit.” In Obamacare, “too old” has limitations of service. Reminder: This appeared in The Wall Street Journal. In addition to offering her “down and dirty” advice for retirees, Somers has strong views on socialism: And then there is another consideration: It’s the dark underbelly of the Affordable Care Act reminiscent of what Lenin and Churchill both said. Lenin: “Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state.” Churchill: “Control your citizens’ health care and you control your citizens.” Unsurprisingly, Lenin never said that line — it’s a decades-old right-wing fabrication. The more curious line is the Churchill quote. It’s almost certainly fake, too; it does not appear in the LexisNexis database or in Google. Unless Somers has done original archival work on Churchill, she seems to have fabricated that quote on her own, or possibly received it via chain e-mail. But the more interesting question is what does Somers think it means? Does she believe Churchill was warning the world of the dangers of a national health-care system? If so, that’s weird, because he strongly favored such a system. Given the latter, is she holding up Churchill as another European despot who, like Lenin, sought to impose universal health care on his citizens? Somers’s side-by-side listing of Churchill with Lenin, along with Churchill’s actual support for nationalized health care, makes the latter more plausible. Somers has tackled a wide array of issues for the Journal, but her latest column may be her deepest foray into public policy: We eagerly await subsequent Somers’s augmentations of the Journal’s Pulitzer-winning critique of Obamacare. Update: The Journal has appended the following correction to Somers's column: An earlier version of this post contained a quotation attributed to Lenin (“Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialist state”) that has been widely disputed. And it included a quotation attributed to Churchill (“Control your citizens’ health care and you control your citizens“) that the Journal has been unable to confirm. Also, the cover of a Maclean’s magazine issue in 2008 showed a picture of a dog on an examining table with the headline “Your Dog Can Get Better Health Care Than You.” An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the photo showed and headline referred to a horse. Horse, dog, whatever.

To: Ron who wrote (236140)	10/29/2013 9:15:56 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 543151

Romney would probably be fighting against sponsors of political spots having to identify themselves. Oh, wait.... My bolding below. Nominee to lead U.S. telecom regulator approved after Cruz lifts hold By Alina Selyukh reuters.com WASHINGTON \| Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:12pm EDT (Reuters) - The Senate on Tuesday approved Tom Wheeler to be the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, enabling the agency to start operating under a permanent leader after a holding period of several months. Republican Senator Ted Cruz said earlier on Tuesday he had lifted his block on the nomination after meeting with Wheeler and receiving affirmation that the FCC would not pursue new disclosure rules for sponsors of political ads. Some Democrats have suggested that the FCC's existing oversight authority over broadcasters could be used to force TV advertisers to name specific sponsors for each political spot they buy after legislating such rules failed in Congress. Cruz and other Republicans have urged the FCC to avoid the political matter. [my comment: LOL, as if allowing people to anonymously sponsor political ads isn't "political." I can't believe Obama is allowing this. And i can't believe that the Senate is still allowing one guy to hold up nominations for any crazy-assed reason they choose.] Wheeler was confirmed on a combined vote along with Republican Michael O'Rielly, who had been nominated to fill the fifth and final open FCC commissioner position. The telecommunications industry welcomed Wheeler's confirmation, which pulled the FCC from a holding pattern without a permanent leader on several crucial initiatives, including a forthcoming major reshuffling of ownership of airwaves. "Both individuals bring an abundance of experience and deep knowledge of media, technology and telecommunications that will serve them well as the Commission considers important policy issues," National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell, himself a former FCC chairman, said in a statement. In a statement, Cruz said Wheeler told him that the nominee "heard the unambiguous message" that pursuing the political disclosure efforts would "imperil the Commission's vital statutory responsibilities." "He explicitly stated that doing so was 'not a priority,'" Cruz said about Wheeler, a telecom industry veteran and Obama adviser. "Based on those representations, I have lifted my hold on his nomination, and I look forward to working with him on the FCC to expand jobs and economic growth." The FCC has been without a permanent leader since former Chairman Julius Genachowski left in May. It has been working since then under Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, the first woman to head the agency. FCC operations, including approvals of new device licenses and acceptance of routine required filings, were stalled by the government shutdown during the first half of October. All but a few dozen of its roughly 1,700 workers were furloughed. Wheeler has worked at a venture capital firm investing in technology, raised money for Obama's political campaigns and advised Obama and the FCC on telecom issues. He was previously an industry lobbyist, running the National Cable Television Association and then the wireless industry group CTIA. O'Rielly was a longtime congressional staffer who worked on telecommunications issues. Industry insiders described him as well-versed in the issues he would be addressing.