What? When? Where? Who drunk, not me.

Bears a strange resemblance to Max Baucus, stooge of the New Democrat Coalition.

Letter from Predator Roman Polanski

Unbelievable letter from Roman Polanski, convicted rapist:

My dear Bernard-Henri Lévy, what you have said in the Swiss press is true -- I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children.

These messages have come from my neighbors, from people all over Switzerland, and from beyond Switzerland -- from across the world. I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning mail. In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation.

I would like to be able to answer all of them. But it is impossible: there are too many. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could reply? Perhaps in your journal, La Règle du jeu, which has supported me from the very first day? Perhaps you could disseminate these few words I'm sending you? I don't know. I'll leave it up to you.

Happy holidays to you and yours -- and, through you, to all of these unknown friends whom I am discovering day after day, and who have helped me so much.

My warmest regards,

Roman Polanski

This letter appeared first in Huffington Post.

No regrets for the sex with a 13-year-old. Just me, me, me! This Hollywood favorite continues to escape justice "arrested" in his 19,000 square foot chalet "Milky Way" on 16 acres in the Swiss Alps.

victim's grand jury testimony


Here's his latest prison (the entire chalet, not just one room), which proves the rich have better cells than the rest of us.

Nathan Myhrvold solution to global warming is cheap and brilliant - they'll destroy him

Article on the Plan

Fortune Magazine article from 2006

White House and New Democrat Coalition - cut Medicare to subsidize world's worst health plan

The new insanity is that instead of passing healthcare for all at no cost - the world standard - nitwits in Congress and the White House have decided to rape Medicare.

One of the targets is home health care. The cuts are major and since the people involved are housebound, there is no danger of them storming the gated communities in rage. They will just die from neglect.

Here's a report from NY Times:

As they are across the nation, Medicare patients and nurses in this town in northern Maine are anxiously following the Congressional debate because its outcome could affect Medicare’s popular home health benefit in a big way. The legislation would reduce Medicare spending on home health services, a lifeline for homebound Medicare beneficiaries, which keeps them out of hospitals and nursing homes.

Under the bills, more than 30 million Americans would gain health coverage. The cost would be offset by new taxes and fees and by cutbacks in Medicare payments to health care providers. Home care shows, in microcosm, a conundrum at the heart of the health care debate. Lawmakers have decided that most of the money to cover the uninsured should come from the health care system itself. This raises the question: Can health care providers reduce costs without slashing services?

Under the legislation, home care would absorb a disproportionate share of the cuts. It currently accounts for 3.7 percent of the Medicare budget, but would absorb 10.2 percent of the savings squeezed from Medicare by the House bill and 9.4 percent of savings in the Senate bill, the Congressional Budget Office says. The House bill would slice $55 billion over 10 years from projected Medicare spending on home health services, while the Senate bill would take $43 billion.

Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Rahm Emanuel and the Blue Dog Democrats and the New Democrat Coaltion have engineered this as part of their War on Elderly, also know as Operation Enduring Misery.

New Democrat Conrad doesn't care that Medicare can easily cost recipients $100,000 a year

These are the facts for those pushing a war between generations, claiming that Medicare is terrific and everyone is subsidizing seniors. All costs are per person, so a couple pays twice these amounts.

Part A: (Hospital Insurance) Premium
•Most people do not pay a monthly Part A premium because they or a spouse has 40 or more quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
•The Part A premium is $244.00 per month for each person having 30-39 quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
•The Part A premium is $443.00 per month for people who are not otherwise eligible for premium-free hospital insurance and have less than 30 quarters of Medicare-covered employment.

Part B: (Medical Insurance) Premium
$96.40 per month. Unlimited co-pay of 20%.

Medicare Deductible and Coinsurance Amounts for 2009:
Part A: (pays for inpatient hospital, skilled nursing facility, and some home health care) For each benefit period Medicare pays all covered costs except the Medicare Part A deductible (2009 = $1,068) during the first 60 days and coinsurance amounts for hospital stays that last beyond 60 days and no more than 150 days. When you enter the hospital again, it costs another $1,068.

For each benefit period you pay:
•A total of $1,068 for a hospital stay of 1-60 days.
•$267 per day for days 61-90 of a hospital stay.
•$534 per day for days 91-150 of a hospital stay (Lifetime Reserve Days).
•All costs for each day beyond 150 days

Skilled Nursing Facility Coinsurance
•$133.50 per day for days 21 through 100 each benefit period. No coverage beyond that.

Part B: (covers Medicare eligible physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, durable medical equipment)
•$135.00 per year. (Note: You pay 20% of all the Medicare-approved amount for services after you meet the $135.00 deductible.)

This is the wonderful Medicare that Sen. Kent Conrad (New Democrat Coalition) wants to destroy by establishing a commission (Pete Peterson brainchild) to lower benefits without Congressional debate.

Medicare is next target of elites

by Dean Baker
Published at Huffingtonpost.com

When Congress debated the TARP last fall, the political elites insisted that the bill must be passed immediately or the economy would collapse. For example, Federal Reserve Board President Ben Bernanke told Congress that the commercial paper market was shutting down, which meant that the country’s largest companies would soon be unable to meet their payrolls and pay other bills. (He neglected to mention that the Fed could single-handedly support the commercial paper market by directly buying commercial paper. Bernanke took steps to begin purchasing commercial paper the weekend after Congress voted.)

Under this pressure, Congress didn’t take the time to ensure that the country would share in the upside from bailing out the banks. It didn’t put in restrictions that ensured that bank executives would not get huge bonuses as the economy continued to sink. Nor did it impose any conditions that would curb the speculative excesses that fueled the bubble and led to the disaster.

The political elites said that the banks needed the money right away, and Congress buckled under the pressure. After all, no one wants to be responsible for the collapsing the economy. So, the banks got the blank check they needed to ensure that they would be largely protected from economic maelstrom that they had created.

Since the TARP escapade worked so well, the Wall Street gang is now trying another round of hostage taking, possibly for even bigger stakes. This time the plan is go after Social Security and Medicare. The Wall Street crew knows that members of Congress are not likely to vote to gut these two hugely popular programs under normal circumstances. These programs are essential to the economic well being of tens of millions of retirees, disabled workers, and their families. In fact, these programs are now more important than ever, since the collapse of the housing bubble has destroyed most of the savings of middle-income families.
Under normal circumstances, members of Congress who voted to cut these programs would be looking to an early retirement: hence the hostage-taking route. The plan is to hold up legislation for raising the debt ceiling unless a provision is included for establishing a commission for the purpose of cutting future deficits. This commission in turn would be stacked with people who want to cut Social Security and Medicare.

The bill also provides that the commission’s report to Congress would be fast-tracked so that it would not be subject to normal procedures. It would not be subject to the same debate or amendment process as other bills. Finally, the commission would issue its report after the November 2010 election, with a vote required before the end of the year. This means that people who were just voted out of office would be able to decide the future of Social Security and Medicare.

The lead culprits in this venture are Senators Kent Conrad and Judd Gregg. The latter is best known for his brief stint as President Obama’s Commerce Secretary designate before he realized this his deeply-held convictions required him to decline the position that he had previously sought. Another leading proponent of this measure is the foundation financed by Peter Peterson, the Commerce Secretary under Richard Nixon who is best known for pocketing tens of millions of dollars through the investment fund manager’s tax break.

The country got suckered by the hostage-taking tactics used to pass the TARP. But, we don’t have to get fooled again. It would be disastrous to create a situation in which the country could not legally finance its debt, but the Peter Peterson Wall Street gang stands to lose much more in this story than the rest of us. If they want to put a gun to their head and threaten to pull the trigger, we should tell them to go ahead and shoot.

We have an elected Congress. If Peterson, Conrad and Gregg want to bring their ideas to be debated, we have the forum. If they have problem with democracy; they can look for a dictatorship somewhere.

Healthcare Update: What reform?

The proposed healthcare reform can be summed up this way:

• No public option
• No imported drugs
• No negotiations with drug companies
• More people on Medicaid
• More people on Medicare
• More taxes to subsidize poor on private plans
• No dental coverage
• No vision coverage
• No nursing home coverage
• No abortions
• No limits on premiums
• No choice for those on employer plans
• No extension of COBRA
• No subsidy for COBRA
• No Republican votes

This is a tribute to the Democrat majority in both houses of Congress and Baracken Promises from the White House with special thanks to the New Democrat Coalition and their corporate whore membership.

Never have so many accomplished so little.

Democrats are really cutting Medicare - Why not just ask New Democrat Coalition?

Watching Max Baucus of the New Democrat Coalition and master of healthcare legislation in the Senate today, I learned that there is a real hatred of seniors by some in Congress.

It happened this way:

After Republican criticisms that eliminating Medicare Advantage would reduce coverage for 11 million seniors enrolled in those plans, including co-pays, dental, eyeglasses, etc., it was suggested that Congress gets almost free healthcare coverage. (Actually, there are more than 220 millionaires in the club of 435, and they can afford any coverage they want.)

Congresspeople pay about $25 a week for health insurance.

So, Max Baucus gets up and whines that he pays for his own health insurance - doesn't mention that his BCBS is $25 and includes vision etc. Medicare recipients pay more than that when you count Part B and prescription, and twice as much when you get supplemental. Baucus also doesn't pay $1,000 when he enters the hospital.

Baucus said on tv that seniors should be happy with what they get from "regular" Medicare, and if they want dental they can pay extra for it.

The plan is to take away from senior $500 billion, and give the money to goverment to subsidize younger poor to buy overpriced health insurance from private companies that have rates unregulated.

And the "moderate" are also continuing work on a commission to strip Medicare of benefits and slowly bleed Social Security in the name of "fiscal" responsibility.

Moore calls out Obama - the new war president

November 30th, 2009 3:44 AM

An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore

Michael Moore homepage

Afghanistan: Obama Drops The Other Shoe

The Iraqi government voted a law requiring us to get our troops out of that country on a timetable - first the cities, then the whole shebang. If we were left to our own devices there would be troops killed for another decade, and the continuation of 100,000 contractors making a fortune for big business war profiteers and munition manufacturers. Did anyone notice, for example, that it takes 250,000 bullets to kill one "terrorist" in Iraq. Business is wonderful there.

Since we have to leave one country, the troops can just move over to the land of tribes and opium, where the drug lords and the Taliban play. The projection is 100,000 contractors needed there, as well. Business will continue to be wonderful.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost