AMA supports the achievement of meaningful health system reform, which follows six key concepts:
To learn more about the AMA’s position Click Here
(from Thom Hartmann)
Republicans are using the T-word – taxes – to attack the Obama healthcare program. It’s a strategy based in a lie.
A very small niche of America’s uber-wealthy have pulled off what may well be the biggest con job in the history of our republic, and they did it in a startlingly brief 30 or so years. True, they spent over three billion dollars to make it happen, but the reward to them was in the hundreds of billions – and will continue to be.
As my friend and colleague Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks pointed out in a Daily Kosblog recently, billionaire Rupert Murdoch loses $50 million a year on the NY Post, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife loses $2 to $3 million a year on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, billionaire Philip Anschutz loses around $5 million a year on The Weekly Standard, and billionaire Sun Myung Moon has lost $2 to $3 billion on The Washington Times.
Why are these guys willing to lose so much money funding “conservative” media? Why do they bulk-buy every right-wing book that comes out to throw it to the top of the NY Times Bestseller list and then give away the copies to “subscribers” to their websites and publications? Why do they fund to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year money-hole “think tanks” like Heritage and Cato? Read More
Public Option Health Care Plan Saves Money | Oliver Willis
No reason not to do it.According to a pair of Capitol Hill sources, preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office suggest that a strong public option–the kind that the House of Representatives is putting in its reform bill–should net somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion in savings over ten years.
The sources cautioned that these were only the preliminary estimates, based on previous discussions–that CBO had not yet issued final scoring on language in the actual bill. But the sources felt the final estimate would likely be close.
For those who think it’s a bad idea, I just say – look at what you are trying to defend. Our health insurance industry CEO’s are the Robber Barons of modern times. They make more money when they raise premiums and reject claims, while not covering pre-existing conditions. Any individual can make as much money as they want, but we are responsible for telling them how much of ours they can have. It’s time to pull the plug on their windfall.
U.S. House Repeals Provision Prohibiting Washington, D.C. from Enacting Medical Marijuana; Nation’s Capital Could Soon Join 13 States That Have Legalized Marijuana for Read More
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: The Yes Men |
LONDON – July 13 – A new, beautifully-designed line of bottled water – this time not from the melting Alps, nor from faraway, clean-water-deprived Fiji, but rather from the contaminated ground near the site of the 1984 Bhopal catastrophe – scared Dow Chemical’s London management team into hiding today.
Twenty Bhopal activists, including Sathyu Sarangi of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, showed up at Dow headquarters near London to find that the entire building had been vacated.
Had they not fled, Dow employees could have read on the bottles’ elegant labels:
B’eau-Pal: Our Story
The unique qualities of our water come from 25 years of slow- leaching toxins at the site of the world’s largest industrial accident. To this day, Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide) has refused to clean up, and whole new generations have been poisoned. For more information, please visit http://www.bhopal.org.
The launch of “B’eau-Pal” water came as Bhopal prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal catastrophe, and coincides with the release of an official report by the Sambhavna Trust showing that local groundwater, vegetables, and breast milk are contaminated by toxic quantities of nickel, chromium, mercury, lead, and volatile organic compounds. The report describes how a majority of children in one nearby community are born with serious medical problems traceable to the contamination.
The attractive yet toxic product, developed by the Bhopal Medical Appeal and the Yes Men with pro-bono help from top London creative design firm Kennedy Monk, highlights Dow’s continued refusal to take responsibility for the disaster. (Five years ago, the Yes Men impersonated Dow Chemical live on BBC World Television and announced that after 20 years, the company was finally going to clean up its mess in Bhopal. That hoax, which temporarily knocked two billion dollars off Dow’s share price, is featured in the Yes Men’s new movie, The Yes Men Fix The World, which opens in UK cinemas on August 11.)
Though Dow has consistently refused to clean up the mess in Bhopal, they have taken numerous steps to clean up their image. In a recent press release, for example, Andrew Liveris, Dow’s Chairman and CEO, noted that “lack of clean water is the single largest cause of disease in the world and more than 4,500 children die each day because of it.” He went on to assert that “Dow is committed to creating safer, more sustainable water supplies for communities around the world.”
The Yes Men met Liveris’ attempt to greenwash Dow’s environmental record with a challenge.
“Since Liveris earns $16,182,544 per year, he could give each of the children who die worldwide for lack of clean water $10 per day to buy Evian, Fiji Water, or Perrier,” said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men. “Or, for vastly less money, he could build them clean-water pipelines, like the ones that Bhopal so badly needs.”
Dow’s greenwashing comes while Bhopal is experiencing an extremely rare drought (http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Yes Men have elaborate plans to contribute to the movement for meaningful action on climate change, beginning in early September and culminating at the December climate talks in Copenhagen. To contribute financially to these efforts (which of course we can’t tell you about), please visit http://theyesmen.org/
* B’eau-Pal water: http://www.bhopalwater.
* Information on Bhopal water study:
Bhopal Medical Appeal Contact: Colin Toogood colintoogood@bhopal.org
T: +44 7798 845074 http://www.bhopal.org/
* The Yes Men in the UK:
Contact: Mike Bonanno T: +44 7940739950 E: mike@theyesmen.org http://www.theyesmen.org/
* August 11 UK release of The Yes Men Fix the World:
McAinsh Consulting Ian Thomson T: +44 7909 685077 E: ian@mcainshconsulting.com
Isabelle Knight T: +44 7717 152006 E: isabelle@mcainshconsulting.
The Yes Men Fix The World will be shown across the UK in participating cinemas on Tuesday, 11 August, via a nationwide satellite link-up. Directed by The Yes Men (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) in collaboration with Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 editor Kurt Engfehr, who co-directs, The Yes Men Fix The World leads us through the daring political pranks of two gonzo activists as they take on the fake identity of corporate executives in a bid to highlight the brutal selfishness of some of the worldÕs biggest multi-national corporations. The film received the Berlin Film Festival’s prestigious Audience Award earlier this year.
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