Hope? Please?????????

xposted


Iran and Israel hold first talks since 1979

The Israeli press is reporting that around a fortnight ago Iran and Israel held direct talks in Cairo. They discussed the idea of a nuclear free Middle East.
Israel indicated that in principle, once comprehensive peace is established, it would be ready to discuss proposals for a nuclear free Middle East. Iran assured Israel that it does not seek to endanger Israel.

This seems to be the first time that the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran have held direct talks. The reports come hot on the heel of other reports regarding Iran's willingness to sign a draft agreement proposed by the IAEA, which affords international recognition of Iran's rights to enrich uranium under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and at the same time eases concerns about Iran's potential ability to produce a nuclear bomb.
This is a short diary covering this breaking story.MORE

The Last Straw: Down with insurance companies.

This morning I wake up to THIS: Rape is a preexisting condition


This after THESE:


Domestic violence is a preexisting condition


Baby too fat to get insurance


Baby too thin to get insurance


Genitial Reconstruction of women suffering from genital mutilation? Cosmetic surgery


You become seriously sick? They might just take your coverage



Or just don't pay


Real ‘Norma Rae’ dead of cancer after battle with health insurer

Free-Market Death Panels


Insurance Company Must Pay $10 Million For Revoking Policy Of Teen With HIV


The "death panels" are already here :Sorry, Sarah Palin -- rationing of care? Private companies are already doing it, with sometimes fatal results

A study by the American Medical Association found the biggest insurance companies in the country denied between 2 and 5 percent of claims put in by doctors last year (though the AMA noted that not all the denials were improper). There is no national database of insurance claim denials, though, because private insurance companies aren't required to disclose such stats. Meanwhile, a House Energy and Commerce Committee report in June found that just three insurance companies kicked at least 20,000 people off their rolls between 2003 and 2007 for such reasons as typos on their application paperwork, a preexisting condition or a family member's medical history. People who buy insurance under individual policies, about 6 percent of adults, may be especially vulnerable, but the 63 percent of adults covered by employer-provided insurance aren't immune to difficulty.
...

Here is a look at a handful of healthcare horror stories, brought to you by the current system. It took Salon staff less than an hour to round these up -- which might indicate how many other such stories are out there

-- In October 2008, Michael Napientak, a doorman from Clarendon Hills, Ill., went to the hospital for surgery to relieve agonizing back pain. His wife's employer's insurance provider, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthCare, had issued a pre-authorization for the operation. The operation went well. But in April, the insurer started sending notices that it wouldn't pay for the surgery, after all; the family, not the insurance provider, would be on the hook for the $148,000 the hospital charged for the procedure. Pre-authorization, the insurance company explained, didn't necessarily guarantee payment on a claim would be forthcoming. The company offered shifting explanations for why it wouldn't pay -- first, demanding proof that Napientak had tried less expensive measures to relieve his pain, and then, when he provided it, insisting that it lacked documentation for why the surgery was medically necessary. Napientak's wife, Sandie, asked her boss to help out, but with no luck. Fortunately for the Napientaks, they were able to attract the attention of a Chicago Tribune columnist before they had to figure out how to pay the six-figure bill -- once the newspaper started asking questions, the insurer suddenly decided, "based on additional information submitted," to cover the tab, after all..MORE

They make pretty good money


But you can never have too much money!

A subsidiary of Wellpoint has decided to sue Maine to guarantee its profit off your sickness


In short, You do not have health insurance

You do not have health insurance. Let me repeat that. You do not have health insurance. (Unless you are over 65, in which case you do have health insurance. I'll come back to that later.) The point of insurance is to protect you against unlikely but damaging events. You are generally happy to pay premiums in all the years that nothing goes wrong (your house doesn't burn down), because in exchange your insurer promises to be there in the one year that things do go wrong (your house burns down). That's why, when shopping for insurance, you are supposed to look for a company that is financially sound - so they will be there when you need them.
If, like most people, your health coverage is through your employer or your spouse's employer, that is not what you have. At some point in the future, you will get sick and need expensive health care. What are some of the things that could happen between now and then?

• Your company could drop its health plan. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (see Table HIA-1), the percentage of the population covered by employer-based health insurance has fallen every year since 2000, from 64.2% to 59.3%. *
• You could lose your job. I don't think I need to tell anyone what the unemployment rate is these days.**
• You could voluntarily leave your job, for example because you have to move to take care of an elderly relative.
• You could get divorced from the spouse you depend on for health coverage.

For all of these reasons, you can't count on your health insurer being there when you need it. That's not insurance; that's employer-subsidized health care for the duration of your employment.MORE

WHY IS IT THAT THIS PARASITICAL INDUSTRY IS ALLOWED TO PROFIT OFF OUR SICKNESS AND HEALTH? ARE WE THAT ENTHRALLED TO THE IDEA OF MAKING OTHER PEOPLE RICH, NO MATTER THE COST TO OURSELVES?

Democrat with balls: Alan Greyson and Al Franken

Grayson v. Broun on the Constitution

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute dilettante over health care bankruptcies
This during a senate Judiciary sub-committee hearing on bankruptcies driven by catastrophic medical expenses

Naturally poor and minority kids are targeted

No child left behind...by the military

John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked him whether he'd ever talked to a military recruiter, Travers, a 19-year-old African American with a buzz cut, a crisp white T-shirt, and a diamond stud in his left ear, smiled wryly. "To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters," he said. "It was overwhelming." Then he added, "I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number." Nor did he give the recruiters his email address, Social Security number, or details about his ethnicity, shopping habits, or college plans. Yet they probably knew all that, too. In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans. Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students' GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect like Travers, the soldier may know more about the kid's habits than do his own parents.

The military has long struggled to find more effective ways to reach potential enlistees; for every new GI it signed up last year, the Army spent $24,500 on recruitment. (In contrast, four-year colleges spend an average of $2,000 per incoming student.) Recruiters hit pay dirt in 2002, when then-Rep. (now Sen.) David Vitter (R-La.) slipped a provision into the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high schools to give recruiters the names and contact details of all juniors and seniors. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their NCLB funding. This little-known regulation effectively transformed President George W. Bush's signature education bill into the most aggressive military recruitment tool since the draft. Students may sign an opt-out form—but not all school districts let them know about it.

Yet NCLB is just the tip of the data iceberg. In 2005, privacy advocates discovered that the Pentagon had spent the past two years quietly amassing records from Selective Service, state DMVs, and data brokers to create a database of tens of millions of young adults and teens, some as young as 15. The massive data-mining project is overseen by the Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies program, whose website has described the database, which now holds 34 million names, as "arguably the largest repository of 16-25-year-old youth data in the country." The JAMRS database is in turn run by Equifax, the credit reporting giant.MORE

Oneof the few times I like the cover better than the original. Just a little bit!

via angry asian man


Jay Sean ft Lil Wayne Down (FULL SONG) New 2009

Quick Quick Danger Down Cover