Tuesday, June 23, 2009
OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical. – Obama on the public option
Health Care: Massachusetts as Model? At best a mixed bag, at worst, an expensive insurance plan that does nothing about health care:
On paper, the experiment was a resounding success. According to an Urban Institute estimate, the number of uninsured residents quickly fell from 13 percent to 7 percent following the law's passage.
And yet, something strange happened. Despite having health insurance, roughly one in 10 state residents still failed to fill prescriptions, ended up with unpaid medical bills, or skipped needed medical care for financial reasons. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to insure more Massachusetts citizens, but many people still weren't getting necessary care. What happened?
Assume you're looking to buy insurance. The state has a handy Web site where you can find the cheapest plan. For a young family of four, that plan costs roughly $9,500 per year, which doesn't include a minimum annual deductible of $3,500 before many benefits kick in. (The state helps cover some of the premiums for those who make very little money, but many still have to pay the other fees.) And if anyone is hospitalized or needs a lot of specialized care, you also pay 20 percent of that bill. In this relatively cheap plan, the family can be liable for an extra $10,000 per year of medical costs. This sort of "high deductible" health plan is clearly structured to discourage medical care.
…The expensive Massachusetts plan is not well-designed to systematically improve anyone's health. Instead, it's a superficial effort to clear the uninsured from the books and then clumsily limit further costs by discouraging care.http://www.slate.com/id/2221031/
Iran: A long process… as protesters have been forced off the street, hundreds of arrests with more to come. As word / unrest spreads, pundits predict a long struggle, assuming the mullahs can’t stop the all but inevitable thirst for “freedom.”
The Iranian government stepped up pressure Tuesday on opponents challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, setting up a special court to try detained protesters, carrying out new arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new vote.
Authorities also formally rejected the opposition's demands to annul the disputed June 12 presidential election on grounds of massive fraud and set a deadline of mid-August for Ahmadinejad's inauguration and the confirmation of his new cabinet.
But in an apparent effort to assuage the opposition, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed to give a powerful supervisory body an additional five days to review the complaints of fraud.
President Obama's remarks Tuesday on the tumult seemed to strike a chord with at least some opposition supporters in Iran.
In an affluent North Tehran neighborhood, where people watched Obama's White House news conference on a big-screen satellite television, one woman commented: "He is following the right line. He should not give the regime an excuse to blame the U.S. for the protests."
Reporters "should grill him on human rights," a man said of Obama, while trying to work around censored Web sites on his computer.
On a day of relative calm after security forces broke up protests Monday, the government vowed to make an example of detained "rioters" and teach them a lesson. Hundreds of Iranians have been arrested in the past 10 days since the Interior Ministry declared that Ahmadinejad outpolled his nearest rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, by nearly 2 to 1. Mousavi has vowed to continue protesting despite a government ban on demonstrations and a public warning from Khamenei.
Truckloads of police in riot gear deployed at Tehran's main squares Tuesday to prevent a recurrence of the protests, and there were no signs of significant opposition gatherings.
A senior official of Iran's judiciary, which is controlled by the ruling Shiite Muslim clerics, said Tuesday that a special court would try detained protesters, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062300155_pf.html
Cleric Discipline: Firing football players- benign compared to other arrests and shootings, but a potent symbol
Their gesture attracted worldwide comment and drew the attention of football fans to Iran's political turmoil. Now the country's authorities have taken revenge by imposing life bans on players who sported green wristbands in a recent World Cup match in protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.
According to the pro-government newspaper Iran, four players – Ali Karimi, 31, Mehdi Mahdavikia, 32, Hosein Ka'abi, 24 and Vahid Hashemian, 32 – have been "retired" from the sport after their gesture in last Wednesday's match against South Korea in Seoul.
They were among six players who took to the field wearing wristbands in the colour of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, which has been adopted by demonstrators who believe the 12 June election was stolen. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/23/iran-football-protest-ban
The Critics: Obama has carefully kept the U.S. from becoming the issue in Iran. He condemns the violence, but conveys respect of/for Iran; he somewhat intensifies his rhetoric in response to the increased repression, but reiterates that we won’t become the issue. The Republicans try to bait him with the usual critique of Democrats, that Obama is weak and timid. He ignores. Reporters try to get him to admit he’s changing his tune (he isn’t) or that he’s merely responding now because of McCain (and others’) criticism. He just scoffs, and refrains from sounding like another pundit or Republican who’s sounding off without concern about consequences.
Wednesday is “Afghanistan Exit Action Day” What’s urged:
U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and Pakistan has killed hundreds of civilians and created hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Yet Congress is set to authorize $550 billion in military spending with an additional $130 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than George W. Bush ever requested.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) wants an exit strategy from Afghanistan and his bill ( H.R. 2404 ) has 89 Congressional co-sponsors. On Wednesday, he will propose it as an amendment to the war funding bill - but he needs our help.
Tell Congress to Demand an Afghanistan Exit Strategy Call your Representative today at (202) 224-3121 to co-sponsor Rep. McGovern's Afghanistan Exit Strategy bill H.R. 2404, and to vote for Rep. McGovern's amendment to the Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 2647).
Thursday: Torture Accountability Action Day What’s happening:
A large coalition of human rights groups will hold rallies and marches in major U.S. cities, including a rally in Washington, D.C.'s John Marshall P ark at 11 a.m. followed by a noon march to the Justice Department where some participants will risk arrest in nonviolent protest if a special prosecutor for torture is not appointed.
Events are planned in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, CA; Pasadena, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA; Boston, MA; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Philadelphia, PA; and Anchorage, AK, with details available online:
http://tortureaccountability.webs.com/eventsacrossus.htm
Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for torture:
Call Eric Holder at 202-514-2001. Fax him at 202-307-6777 or
send him a free fax: http://www.peaceandjustice.it
Torture Accountability Action Day in Boston
June 25th, 2009 at 2 PM, Harvard Square T-Stop
Speakers:
Shahid Buttar, Executive Director of Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) http://www.bordc.org/
Faisal Fahad, brother of a detained peace activist http://freefahad.com/
Tausif Paracha, whose uncle has been detained in Guantanamo since 2003 http://www.freeparachas.org/
http://tortureaccountability.webs.com/boston.htm
And: In the evening: Newton Dialogues and Social Workers for Peace are sponsoring at the Eliot Church in Newton Corner, 7:30PM
Guantanamo: Change Under Obama? A talk given by Doris Tennant and Ellen Lubell – Newton lawyers working pro-bono in defense of a young Algerian man who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for over 7 years without trial or charges.
Trend: Naming Rights Selling assets to make budget. More municipalities are resorting to the quick fix. And, there’s privatization in its purer form: The City of Chicago sold control of the parking meters to a private company that over the next few years quadrupled the price of parking.
Selling the name of a subway station has been a goal of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for nearly five years. But interest has been low, even for a piece of real estate so recognizable to the public.
So it was with surprisingly little fanfare that the authority announced on Monday that it had finally found a buyer.
If a $4 million deal is approved on Wednesday, the nexus of subway stops at Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn will add an additional name to its already lengthy title: Barclays.
This may seem odd, since Barclays is a bank based in London with offices in Manhattan, and the only Barclay Street on the city map is not even in Brooklyn. (It’s in Manhattan, in the financial district.)
There will, however, soon be a Barclays Center, the sports arena planned as the focal point of the Atlantic Yards project, and the developer, Forest City Ratner, has agreed to pay the transportation authority $200,000 a year for the next 20 years to rename one of the oldest and busiest stations in the borough.
This raises a few questions. An academic might talk of the intersection between public and private space. A straphanger may ask how all those names can fit into one announcement.
And if a company can pay to get its name on any station, a New Yorker might wonder what’s next: Coca-Cola Presents 59th Street-Columbus Circle?
The answer is maybe. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24naming.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
Chinese Trend: Plastic Surgery
Big eyes, big noses, big breasts and now humungous Hummers – China seems to be indulging an obsession with size, just when the rest of the world is learning the virtues of moderation.
In Shanghai, for example, business is booming on eyelifts, noselifts, chestlifts and other surgery aimed at enlarging classically Asian narrow eyes, flat noses and unobtrusive mammary glands. At the Shanghai Time Plastic Surgery Hospital, Dr Liao Yuhua says business is up 40 per cent since the end of last year – not despite the global economic crisis, but because of it. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8c03462-5f44-11de-93d1-00144feabdc0.html
-R
