This is huge

Looking for someone to blame for rapidly rising Health Care costs in Massachusetts?   Look no further than Partners Health Care Systems.   You've got the largest collection of hospitals and physicians in the region using their power to demand their rates be 15-60% higher than other groups for the same services.   Just because they bargain collectively.  Fuck that. 

Luckily, The Justice Department is finally calling bullshit: 

The US Department of Justice has opened a civil investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior by Partners HealthCare System Inc., the region’s most powerful hospital and physician network.

In a letter sent to Partners and the state’s three largest health insurers on April 19, investigators from the Justice Department’s antitrust division demanded documents relating to Partners’ “contracting and other practices in health care markets in Eastern Massachusetts.’’

The letter, obtained by the Globe, said the probe sought to determine whether the practices violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, which bars companies from using their market power to limit trade or artificially raise prices. The parties were told to respond by May 19.

The federal probe comes as Massachusetts business and government officials wrangle over how to control soaring medical costs, and who is to blame for a decade of skyrocketing insurance premiums.

Boston-based Partners has been under growing scrutiny because of its market power and ability to draw high prices from insurers. The company employs about 5,500 physicians and operates a half dozen smaller hospitals, in addition to their prestigious Harvard-affiliated Boston teaching hospitals, Mass. General and the Brigham.

Everyone is so quick to blame the insurers as profit hogs, but no one looks at how well groups like Partners have been doing for the last decade or so.  Remember, 90% of premiums collected by insurers from YOU go towards medical costs.  The biggest group of medical professionals and facilities get paid more than everyone else.   The insurers - a lot of whom are non-profit - are held hostage by their collective bargaining. 

This is how to stop the bleeding.   Bravo to the Justice Dept.

Bartlett on Epistemic Closure of the GOP

Bartlett rounds up some examples of the conservative establishment's ostracizing of anyone harboring a dissenting voice. 

Another example of how social pressure is brought to bear against dissident conservatives occurred shortly after this incident and also involved Heritage. Ryan Sager, then a columnist for the conservative New York Post, published a book in 2006 called The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party. His argument, similar to the one I made in my Impostor book, was that the Bush White House had abandoned the historical libertarian position of the Republican Party on many issues in pursuit of votes among anti-libertarian evangelicals.

Sager had been invited to talk to a group called the Prosperity Caucus, a loose-knit private group that meets about once a month in Washington to discuss economics and politics over pizza and beer. Usually, the group borrows a room on Capitol Hill or at a conservative think tank. As it had done often before, this particular month the Prosperity Caucus had booked a room at Heritage.

Even though Sager’s criticism of Bush was far milder than mine, he was deemed radioactive by Heritage, which canceled the Prosperity Caucus’s reservation and booted them out of the building when it came to its attention that Sager was speaking.

I have friends who chide me for "going liberal" in recent times.  It's something I love and hate all at the same time.   I love it because those who do are simply proving the point that the modern day GOP has only power-grabbing and obstructionism in mind and are mentally allergic to pragmatism.  I hate it because it's an indication that the battle for power in the GOP between the Libertarians and the Bible Thumpers is being controlled by the latter. 

I'm no liberal, this much I can assure you.  But I'm left only with a choice between these:

a) Cut taxes and spend heavily on Defense and Medicare while working to restrict Civil Rights
and
b) Leave middle class taxes alone, spend domestically on much-needed reform and be mindful of individual rights

Is there even a question which way I'd choose?

Drum Defends the New Atheists

Kevin Drum takes David B. Hart to task for his smear of New Atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.  

But no matter how beguiling those questions are, surely the metaphysical one always comes first. To say merely that Christianity is comforting or practical — assuming you believe that — is hardly enough. You need to show that it's true. And if you want to assert that something is true, the onus is on you to demonstrate it, not on the New Atheists to demonstrate conclusively that it isn't. After all, in the end the only difference between Hart and Dawkins is that Hart believes in 1% of the world's religions and Dawkins believes in 0% of them. It's Dawkins' job only to question that remaining 1%. It's Hart's job to answer him.

I want this...

Winscape.  Just watch the vid...

Two 46-inch Panasonic TC-P46G10 plasma screens bring the images to life.  They are fed by an Apple Mac Pro workstation in the adjacent room running custom OS X software called Winscape.  Using the displays’ physical layout parameters, the Winscape software renders the proper portions of the video to fill the appropriate displays using Quicktime and OpenGL.  A Wii remote reports the position of a custom-built IR-emitting necklace in the room via bluetooth.  The Winscape software uses this tracker information (when available) to shift the view for the person wearing the IR necklace.  Sleep, Wake, and Scene Selection can be controlled by a web page served by the software or by the Winscape Remote iPhone App.

Sully on Tea wth Miss McGill

Meant to post this yesterday - or at least thought I had.   Sully breaks down the Tea Party express and the article may as well have sucked from my mind as if we were hooked up to a Frankenstein machine. 

The whole thing is worth a read.  His wrap:

In my view, this confluence of feelings can work in shifting the public mood, as seems to have happened. When there is no internal pushback against crafted FNC propaganda, and when the Democrats seem unable to craft any coherent political message below the presidential level, you do indeed create a self-perpetuating fantasy that can indeed rally and roil people. But the abstract slogans against government, the childish reduction of necessary trade-offs as an apocalyptic battle between freedom and slavery, and the silly ranting at all things Washington: these are not a political movement. They are cultural vents, wrapped up with some ugly Dixie-like strands.

When they propose cuts in Medicare, means-testing Social Security, a raising of the retirement age and a cut in defense spending, I'll take them seriously and wish them well.

Until then, I'll treat them with the condescending contempt they have thus far deserved.

Sully does well to leave Palin out of the mix, but I wonder if that was simply to avoid cheapening his criticism and catching guff for Palin Derangement Syndrome.  Still, it shouldn't ignored that she's the de facto leader and iconic face of the movement.  A truth that speaks volumes of the group's validity. 

The Pliable Romney

This couldn't possibly go over well with the Tea Partiers come 2012...

(via Sullivan)

Quote For The Day

16 Apr 2010 10:35 am

"If ever again somewhere down the road I would be debating [Obama], I would be happy to take credit for his [healthcare] accomplishment," - Mitt Romney.

I Love Willie!

Nelson that is...   He chatted with Larry King - interview to air tonight - talking up the greatness of getting kushed, even right before going on the show.  This guy is my fucking hero.

Another Small Step for Gay Rights

President Obama issued a memo to the Department of Health and Human Services directing them to create an exception to the relatives-only policy for gay couples.   The exception comes in handy for same-sex couples in states where gay marriage is not legally recognized.  

Obama requested that the regulation make clear that any hospital receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding, which includes the vast majority of U.S. hospitals, must allow patients to decide who can visit them and prohibit discrimination based on a variety of characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity.

This is another feather in the cap for the gay community, as the memo follows on the heels of Obama's repeal of DADT.  While it doesn't solve all of the problems related to the ban on gay marriage that exist in most states, it's another solid step in affording equality to all.   Kudos. 

Of course we respect you for your mind

The ought's most recognizable whore*, Ashley Dupre, was on Opie and Anthony this morning to promote her burgeoning career as a singer and working with children.   She wants us to ignore that she probably used to spank Elliot Spitzer while wearing a clown suit.   Opie took offense to the notion and the two battled to the death on the air.   Good times.  





* Hilton, Kardashian and Lohan stole each others votes for this honor

Hitchens on the Promise of Eternal Life

I can't get enough of this exchange from the Great God Debate between Christopher Hitchens and moderator Tom Ashbrook.   The conversation ducks in and out of how religion helps people  come to terms with our mortality, and Hitchens pounces:

Hitchens:  I think despair is quite a good starting point.  I think it's very good to know we're born into a losing struggle.  Everything is governed by entropy and decline and annihilation and disaster.  And because you are a mammalian primate you know you are.  And you know you're going to die and that there will be a lot of struggling along the way.  I don't want a world without anxiety and grief and pain and struggle.  I can't get it.   If it were offered to me, I'd spurn the gift.  I don't want what you want.  I don't want the feeling of eternal love and peace.  Love and peace are very overrated in my view. 

Tom: How is that not misanthropic of you?

Hitchens:  Misanthropic?  It doesn't mean I have to hate people.  It means I respect them enough not to offer them false consolation.  The realm of illusion will not help you to cure this conviction. 

This is precisely the reason most people who don't necessarily subscribe to the tenets of Christianity or Judaism remain ardently faithful.   And precisely why I do not.  No illusion for me, thank you.  I've come to grips with the fact that this is it and am quite content as a result.

Brown > Palin

A lot has been made the last few days over Scott Brown's decision to forgo Sarah Palin's Tea Party rally on Boston Common on Wednesday.  While I try not to read too much into decisions like this - Brown's explanation was that he's busy, you know, doing Senator stuff - you have to admire the guy for leaving the loonies to themselves.  Of course, the Palin Teabag machine had to spin it as if they weren't pissed about it:

“It’s not about paying favors back,” said Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, which organized the rally and invited Brown.   “I’d happily forgo (having him) if he’s truly doing the job of the people.  He has half a century of Kennedy damage to compensate for, after all.”

Of course, this isn't the first time Brown pulled the ol' 'I'm going this way; which way are you going?" routine. 

Barbara Klain, head of the Greater Lowell Tea Party, said Brown also turned down an invite to speak at their April 15 rally in downtown Lowell.    “He said he was going to be in Washington,” Klain said. “He needs to be doing his job.”

And of course we know that Brown somehow forgot that Caribou Barbie herself called to congratulate him after his special election win.  Pretty shrewd if you ask me. 

You've gotta commend this guy for keeping a safe distance from the loony brigade.  In a state where there are more liberals and independents than conservatives, palling up with the neo-cons and fringe fuckers would be like doing tequila shots with your alcoholic uncle at thanksgiving dinner.  

Keep up the good work, Scott. 

Ron Paul Gets it Right

Those in attendance at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference were clearly confused by Ron Paul's just criticism of Republican foreign policy positions. 

Later, when it was his turn to speak at the convention, the libertarian Paul delivered a scathing criticism of Republican foreign policy views:

Conservatives spend money on different things. They like embassies, and they like occupation. They like the empire. They like to be in 135 countries and 700 bases. (boos) [...]
Don’t you think it’s rather conservative to say, ‘oh it’s good to follow the Constitution, oh, except for war. Let the President go to war anytime they want.’ [...] We can do better with peace than with war! (mixture of boos and applause)

Throughout his speech, Paul’s comments were met with an awkward tension from the crowd, many of whom appeared uncomfortable with him.

It's tremendous how Paul, who many deem to be too kooky and flighty for serious contention for president, is the one making the most sense at these things.  As ThinkProgress points out, the neo-con right already began their swift break from him after his success at CPAC in February:

Rush Limbaugh responded by claiming CPAC is “not an organization of conservatives,” and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee similarly said CPAC is becoming “increasingly libertarian and less Republican.”

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone following the steady bifurcation of the Republican Party over the last few years.  Anytime some self-proclaimed Tea Partier tries to bemoan the liberal destruction of the constitution and sprawl of our federal government, remind then about Ron Paul's position and watch them flail about and make strange noises.  

Teabaggers love stressing individual freedoms and constitutional liberty until you remind them that their position should also mean an end to American imperialism, the legalization of marijuana, allowing a woman's right to an abortion and full civil rights for the gay community.  Then, of course, all bets are off.

The Great God Debate

On March 23rd I attended the Great God Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe at the Hancock Hall in Boston.   The tickets included a cocktail reception with the speakers after the event and my friend and I were lucky enough to sneak a photo op with the great Hitchens himself, Johnny Black under arm and all.

Anyway, the debate was being filmed and I've been waiting for a while now for the footage to show up on YouTube and now the wait is over.   Take 90 minutes or so of your precious day to give these guys a listen.   Quality stuff.  Q&A portion was top notch as well.   

Embedded vid for part 1 after the jump...

A Tradition Like No Other

You know that giddy look kids start to get in the middle of December, because they think this is the year they finally get the pony they've been asking for from that lying prick, Santa?   That's pretty much what I've looked like for the last month whenever The Masters is mentioned.   In related news, you know the face you make when you step into the outhouse at a chili cook-off?   That's the face I've been making whenever I see another story about Tiger Woods that doesn't involve his abilities on the golf course.  

The lesson, of course, is that this could mark the weekend that we finally stop talking about Tiger the Trashy Whore Slayer and start talking about Tiger the Best Golfer in the World.  Outhouse face be damned! 

Honestly, I couldn't be happier.  As with years past, I am taking Thursday and Friday off to golf myself and then watch the best tournament in golf without interruption.    I am a bit concerned about how Tiger will play, seeing as he hasn't played competitively since November and spent much of that time in rehab and also talked about playing "not as hot, but not as exuberant."     This is probably most concerning.   Playing hot and/or exuberant is what made him the best.  If Tiger's not all fired up and intense he's just a skinny version of Vijay Singh.  Eff That. 

 Tiger's comeback aside, there really is nothing like The Masters.  Start with the most legendary and exclusive golf course on the planet and add in the calming theme music and steady call from Jim Nantz.  The sense that for four days you're slowly building toward another historic moment is undeniable.  Can't. F'n. Wait. 

Good Dem, Bad Dem

So Politico posted a piece on Sunday, claiming that President Obama's 2010 priority is getting Deval Patrick re-elected as governor of Massachusetts.    To which I say, are you out of your God Damned Mind?!

Deval Patrick is political fucking napalm - and not in the ass-to-mouth-loving, Jessica Simpson way.   This is a guy who fucked over the unions that got him elected, raised the state sales tax, built his entire campaign on legalizing casinos (which failed miserably), and just cost a major provider of jobs in the state $100M when employment is already on shaky ground as it is.

This guy embodies  reason that Scott Brown got elected to the Senate in January; people are sick of tax-and-spend-achusetts and Deval represents the very foundation of that angst.   As I've said before in this space, while Obama's voting record as a Senator may have been to the left, his governing as president has been very much centered.   This is what makes him a desirable political figure in today's age of hyper-partisanship and hate-fueled rhetoric.    Aligning himself with a guy who's liberalism would make Gore Vidal blush can't possibly be a political home run.   He shouldn't have to disown the guy, but he should at least watch from a safe distance.

What in hell happened to Mischa Barton?

I know there's rumors aplenty about her delicate grasp of sanity lately, but that's no excuse for her to steal Jessica Simpson's pants and try smuggling lamb shanks in the pockets.   Just a reminder, a year ago, she looked like this and this.  Now she looks like she should be fronting the band at the Star Wars bar. 

Pics that might not make you question the meaning of life below jump...

GOP Purges Another

Chris Currey, a pragmatic conservative, details his GOP chagrin on FrumForum.  

Highlight:

Then something happened in the 1990s. The leaders of the GOP grew belligerent. They became too religious, almost zealots. They became intolerant. They began searching for purity in Republican thought and doctrine. Ideology blinded them. I continued to vote Republican, but with a certain unease. Deep down I knew that a schism happened between the modern Republican Party and the one I grew up with. During the fight over the impeachment of President Clinton, the ugly face of the Republican Party was brought to the surface. Empty rhetoric, ideological intolerance, vengeance, and religious zealotry became the common currency. Suddenly, if you are pro-choice, you could not be a Republican. If you are for smart and sensible taxes to balance out the budget, you could not be a Republican. If you are pro-civil rights, you could not be a Republican.

It started with minorities: they left the party. Then women; they divorced the GOP and sent it to sleep on the couch. Then, the young folks; they left and are leaving the Republican Party in droves. Then, someone stood up and told my niece and my grandchild that they are not fully Americans — just second class Americans because they are homosexual. They wished hell and damnation upon my loved ones just because they are different. Are we led by priests or are we led by rational politicians? Now, we have became the party of the Old Straight White Folks. We should rename the Republican Party the OSWF rather than the GOP.

Recently, since the election of Barack Obama, common sense has left the Republican Party completely. We are in the era of craziness. As David Frum has written, a deal was there to be made over the healthcare bill. Instead, this ideological purity blinded the GOP. As LBJ said it, instead of being inside the tent pissing out, we choose to be outside the tent, pissing against the wind. And we got splashed by our own nonsense.

Apache Gunner Video

So this video, decrypted and released by the WikiLeaks, of an American Apache helicopter providing air support for ground troops in a suburb of Baghdad, is disturbing on a few fronts.   For one, yes, there were innocent people killed.  For another, there was clearly a tinge of overzealous behavior, coupled with some poor communication between the pilots, gunners and ground soldiers.

Should the servicemen involved catch shit for what they did?   Of course not.  It might be a bruise on the cheek of the US Military PR but at the end of the day this is a guerrilla war going on.   If two reporters are going to walk around with armed men - and other men are going to bring their children on the rescue mission - collateral damage will happen.   It doesn't make it right but until the Iraqi military can handle its gun-toting civilians and we can get the hell out of there, this shit will happen.

Vid below the jump.

Deval Patrick - you're doing it wrong, ctd.

Dammit all, Deval.

Using crappy public opinion of health insurers to your political advantage is a deceptive practice, to be sure, and to boot he clearly doesn't understand how premiums are established.  In fact he probably thinks like these commenters on Boston.com do:

Thanos73 wrote:

ToniCa wrote:
"Deval just doesn't get it. Health care cost increases come from hospitals and doctors. The insurance companies have to increase their rates based on what the hospitals and doctors charge them"

Wow, you really need to put the pipe down. The Insurance companies dictate rates to Doctors and Hospitals, they don't negotiate.

Thanos73 here may want to ask the hundreds of people who work in Provider Contract negotiators and Actuaries at insurance companies what they think about his comment.  Does he really think payers pull premium increases out of thin air? 

Then there's this...

JasonSeacrest wrote:

I have yet to hear from the Insurance carriers WHY they needed these huge increases (yet again.). There's no inflation..so why are only YOUR costs increasing?

Is it to feed the stockholders that 10%+ return on their investment? Nobody else is getting raises, why should you?

EXPLAIN!

SURE, JASON!   In Massachusetts fully-insured plans are Not for Profit, so it's not as if shareholders are making a ton of money every year because (drum roll, please) there are no shareholders!  Why isn't Jason calling his PCP and asking why he's getting that 10% raise every year?   The misconceptions in this debate are staggering. 

Look, I get it: we all saw Erin Brokovich and know there are evil health insurance companies out there that deny services for the really sick and reject coverage for those with pre-existing conditions all while whistling their way to the bank.  Those companies needed to be dealt with and ObamaCare did that for the other 49 states.  But in Massachusetts, land of Non-Profit health, universal care and bans on preX denials?  Why the hell are you stomping all over us?  We're not the bad guys!!

As I've noted before on this blog, this concept of limiting the premiums without addressing what drives 90% of those costs addresses the symptom and not the disease.  Provider contracts are negotiated on a bi-annual basis and those contracts that are already set for this coming year can't be changed because they're, you know, legally binding and all that.  Also premiums are based upon utilization as well and there's been a spike, which the proposed rates were an answer to.  So basically two unmovable forces are crashing head-on into the now-easily-moved-because-Deval-said-so force.

It's a bandaid and one of two things will happen as a result.  1) Payers with already shaky bottom-lines will be in trouble and you could see some smaller plans go out of business, or 2) Rates will go up in subsequent - *ahem* non-election - years to offset the loss caused by this year's rejection.

Another crappy thing about the potential byproducts are their indirect impact on the national health care debate.   For Republican's dying for talking points to bash ObamaCare, this overreach by Deval Patrick and Massachusetts democrats comes at just the right time.  "Look at Massachusetts!   They passed universal health care and within three years were setting costs in the private market!"

My prediction:  when Fallon or one of the other smaller insurers goes out of business, the first headline you'll see on Fox News:  "ObamaCare claims first victim!"  Even though anyone with half a noodle in their head  knows the two are not related. But it doesn't have to have a basis in reality if it sounds scary! 

If this is Deval's Hail Mary for re-election, he may have just tossed it right through the hands of Barrack Obama.

Second verse, same as the first

John Avlon has a great article on the Obama-as-Hitler and Bush-as-Hitler hysterics that have been so prevalent the last few years.

This may come as a shock to some but neither claim is appropriate.  And getting more pissy about one over the other, based solely on your political allegiance, is no better.  

Says John:

I condemn both Bush-as-Hitler and Obama-as-Hitler comparisons in my book and subsequent speeches. Liberals frequently object to my invocation of Bush Derangement Syndrome, just as conservatives bristle at my detailing of Obama Derangement Syndrome. Centrists are used to liberals calling them conservative and conservatives calling them liberal. This impulse is designed to discredit independents and reinforces the left/right divide.

But what's most striking to me is the way committed partisans miss the broader moral equivalency behind these two syndromes: If you only object to the president of your party being compared to Hitler, then you're part of the problem.  (my bold for emphasis)

Holy motorboat, batman!

Need to step away from politics for a second and what better reason than Katy Perry and her God-given assets? 

(April fools!  God had nothing to do with those sweater cows.   Love me some large-breasted genetics)

Good Christians?

 Sure they are.   And our courts, sadly, are helping them:

The father of a US Marine killed in Iraq in 2006 has been ordered to pay 16,000 dollars to [the Westboro Baptist Church] who organized an anti-gay protest during his son's funeral, an attorney has said.

Depending on your perspective, these asshats may be better than some calling the shots in the Catholic hierarchy right now. 

Nonetheless, my stomach does an extra-special turn whenever I read a story about their "Free Speech" protests at funerals of servicemen and women.  I get that it's all done for the shock factor and buzz generation, yet it's still sickening to me that the soldiers who's funerals they're using as a prop for their piddly cause died while protecting their right to such a protest.

I've got an idea, why not take some of the energy to Vatican City?  If these lunatics are so enraged about homosexuality, shouldn't they be all the more fired up over the Holy See and his army of pedophiles?