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Coakley's Corporate Connection
Martha Coakley is going down in flames.
So is the Democratic Party.
Why?
We found the answer earlier this week at - of all places - The Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
Timothy Carney was giving a powerpoint presentation about his new book: Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses.
Here's the book in a nutshell:
"Both parties are the parties of big business," Carney said. "They both promote corporate socialism."
I sat there in the front row at Cato, in wonder.
Listening to the talk - as Carney outlined how Obama had cut deals with Billy Tauzin and the pharmaceutical industry.
Thinking to myself - is this why Martha Coakley is having such a hard time in Massachusetts?
She's just another corporate Dem - just like Obama?
Then, lo and behold, as if I was channeling Carney, he calls up a slide on his powerpoint.
On the big screen at Cato is an invitation to a corporate fundraiser - that night at the Sonoma Restaurant on Capitol Hill - for Coakley.
And I say to myself - wait a second.
Coakley is in the middle of a tight race and she's flying to DC one week before the election to be with a group of corporate lobbyists?
Yes.
She is.
And then Carney went down the list of 22 members of the host committees - meaning they each raised $10,000 or more for Coakley.
"Seventeen are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients," Carney said.
"You see the names - Gerald Cassidy, David Castagnetti,, Tommy Boggs - those are all lobbyists I've highlighted there who have clients who are drug companies, health insurers, hospitals or all three," Carney said. "AHIP, Phrma, Pfizer, Blue Cross - everybody is covered there. Aetna somehow isn't. I don't know how they got left out."
"These are the special interests," Carney said. "These are the people trying to elect Martha Coakley to be vote number 60 for health insurance."
Carney then puts up a slide showing how the Phrma cash went from supporting Republican candidates for President in the past - to supporting Barack Obama in 2008.
"Barack Obama raised $2.1 million from drug companies in 2008," Carney said. "That's about equal to what John McCain raised plus what George Bush raised in both of his elections. It's the most by far any candidate has raised from the drug industry."
The people of Massachusetts already have tried a corporate reform that forces them to buy junk insurance.
They don't like it.
They're waiting for a candidate that will deliver a message they've been waiting to hear.
Single payer.
Everybody in.
Nobody out.
Put the private insurance companies out of business.
Drive down the cost of drugs to the levels of say Canada or the UK.
But Obama, Coakley and the Democrats are awash in corporate cash.
They have made their choice.
And they deserve to lose.
Onward to single payer.
- Posted in
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34 Comments so far
Show AllLook, we've already lost the battle. We've got to pressure our dems to do the right things (end the wars, regulate derrivatives, break-up the big banks, support real health care reform, etc). I say support her candidacy, and then eviscerate her bad actions.
dmac and many of my neoliberal co-workers believe Obamacare will be a small step forward that can be tweaked to become true health care reform in the near future.
The devil is in the details and anybody who looks at the Obamacare details realizes that it is not a small step forward but a huge step backwards into a deep swamp that will be difficult or impossible to ever get out of or eviscerate.
Listen to yourself. You plan on her acting against your interests, yet you call for her support. In 2008 the Dems took control of congress and the white house and instead of change toward a more just society, they moved in completely the opposite direction. aye, yi, yi.
You are kidding, right?
He MUST be kidding, because the only way to make her (and the rest of the dems) understand is for them to lose. Then, when they shift farther to the right in some silly attempt to gain a majority, they have to lose again. And again. Hopefully they'll dope it out: "Oh - it's the CORRUPTION people don't like!"
I hope it doesn't happen, though, because at this point I'm so frustrated that I'm actually looking forward to the inevitable insurrection...
"I say support her candidacy, and then eviscerate her bad actions."
____________________________________
Comedy gold!
I thought I'd seen all of the puerile, and frankly hilariously ludicrous, lesser-evil partisan arguments for supporting corrupt and compromised Democrats.
But I think we have a new winner-- a variation on "better the devil one knows": voting for a Democratic gutpile.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I say let it pass because insurrection is sure to follow.
As long as it's a non-violent insurrection. I will not support violence of any kind because it'll just make things worse. If you think a violent uprising will solve anything, it's delusional thinking of your part.
It'll just make the state more repressive and reactionary. Any fool can see that.
I won't be paying any mandated bill to an insurance cartel.
Let's all go to jail. It would be an honor in this case.
See you all there.
From the first link: the president taped an automated phone call asking Massachusetts to vote for Coakley, and promising "She'll be your voice and my ally."
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Ha Ha Ha Ha. She can not be both. My voice is not your ally and your ally is not my voice. Not. Even. Close.
and from the same link:
Republicans are using the threatened delay as a rallying point to argue Democrats have been gaming the rules to pass the health care bill despite public opposition.
----
They're right about Democrats gaming to pass a bill that has tremendous opposition because the public is catching on that this is a corporate bill and not one for the public's benefit.
CBS poll this week showed Obama only has a 36% approval rating on healthcare. Only about 20% of Americans think healthcare reform balances expanding coverage, controlling costs and regulating insurance companies.
Yes...what a small step forward. Force everybody buy law to pour money into the same system everybody hates. Wow...isn't progress wonderful.
Occasionally, The CATO Institute gets things correct. From Russ's tone, I believe he wants Coakley to lose so Obamacare will lose. One wonders what side DieBold is on as they will surely manipulate the voting machines so its favored candidate wins.
There seems to be no essential difference between the actions of corporate imperialist Bush and corporate imperialist Obama. Obviously, there is a large difference in tone and voice and rhetoric, but in terms of actions, Obama is still denying the 800-year old right of Habeus Corpus (sic), Obama is still unconstitutionally spying on all Americans and Obama is refusing to investigate and prosecute the thousands of felonies committed by the members of the Cheney-Bush gangster regime.
This so-called "health care reform" has morphed into anti-choice for women and enforced purchase of unregulated private "health" insurance for millions of Americans. Obama has shown practically zero leadership on these issues. Soaring progressive rhetoric on the campaign stump and quiet as a mouse in the Oval Office.
After Obama gets done saving lives in Haiti, he can concentrate on ending lives in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Iraq...
Onward to reconciliation. It should be interesting to watch the scrambling and could be very productive if 51 Dems don't sell out.
keep hoping ez
Gee can they even outlaw preexisting condition clauses?
Malcolm said it best, "Hoodwincked, Bamboozled" some change, eh? Barak O'Bush, you d'man.
Crush the Traitorous Dims and build a new populist party( possibly Green) on their ashes.
Make the Dims lose and lose and lose until they go left or extinct.
Just another reason I voted Nader.
Cuba has world class free universal healthcare - why can't we?
" Cuba has world class free universal healthcare, why can't we"? Because Cuba has a horrible terrorist, communist government run by a despotic dictator who tortures its own people. They have no freedoms or democracy. Their healthcare is just communist propaganda and the Cuban people are afraid to speak out about this most egregious lie!
Cuba's health care is real and they have the numbers to prove it - in life expectany, infant mortality, percentage immunized. And nobody dies for want of health insurance as do 45,000 people annually in the U.S.A. As for torture, considering the record of our government in torturing its enemies in Iraq snd Afghanistan and its enthusiasm for warrantless surveillance and searches here at home, how long before it'll be waterboarding dissidents, with the justification for doing this, you guessed right, national security?
I understand they have a great dental system too. Dental professionals have compared dental delivery conditions in the U.S. to the third world. Consider, too, that among all the dental issues there are, at least 35.7 million people in the United States have periodontitis, just in and of itself. (1 in 3 over 30. And there's no coverage if you have periodontal disease.) You get an oral infection with that, and it can rapidly travel to the brain and kill you. Plus, more and more research is linking periodontal disease to higher rates of heart disease, strokes, diabetes, respiratory disease, and pre-term and low weight babies. I suppose if you need (just) the 3X monthly perio cleanings in Cuba, you (just) go in and get them.
Everything intelligent (and just) points to a single payer health care system. If it's health care that we're concerned with.
Cuba already had 400 doctors on the ground helping the people of Haiti before the quake occured. You are a victim of corporatist and right wing propaganda.
I guess my satire was a little too subtle for you! I have friends that have traveled to Cuba and they checked it out and according to them, they do have free healthcare for everyone!
I see this all the time. There are people who will believe articles from the Onion. Most rwc college students believe that Colbert is a real conservative.
Then there are those who think that liberal and left mean the same thing and that dissing Obama means you're a free thinker.
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Poe's_Law
Their country is so poor, and ours is so rich, yet they rank competitively with the U.S. today on health care, because their health care system is so much more efficient, resourceful, intelligent.
Meanwhile, our system just keeps sinking even further down the ratings ladder.
How many doctors do we have in Haiti right now? And for all the medical professionals we have, compared to Cuba?
Are there even a hundred there at present?
I so agree. And Cuba TRIED to send doctors to help the Katrina victims but Bush wouldn't let them come. And look at the job he did. It's just unreal. The mindless cuba/castro haters won't just die off. They're such nutcases. I don't like Castro ..on the other hand, look at who was before him...and then, hasn't our embargo helped keep things the way they are more than anything? What a policy.
The Cuban people are wonderful. The sour grapes ones here, mostly in Miami are just furious that they lost all their money and ability to screw Cubans financially with all the prostitution and gambling that went on pre-Castro. If those people want to stay mad, get mad at the crazy US policies that have kept Cuba from changing and growing. Cubans would demand more democracy if we didn't keep them so closed from the world.
Revere's comment reads like satire.
But whether intended or accidental satire, if the historical Paul Revere were as misinformed as the commenter using his name, we US residents would all be spooning up spotted dick in our dining rooms beneath a portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
Still, IMO even if it's NOT satire, being as wrong as two left shoes is not a valid reason to "flag" or censor a comment.
· Yr Obd't Servant
All prostrate to the founding fathers (ra ra ka boom), but, you know, it's interesting you draw this analogy, because if the historical Paul Revere were "as misinformed," today (at least) we might have either a single payer health care system, as in Canada, or socialized medicine, as in the U.K.
Whatever pictures or recipes dot our dining room decor ...
Good for you Russell!
The proposed HCR legislation will be a disaster--Single payer advocates realize that now. And if it passes, the rest of the country will come to that realization very quickly!
Call your representative--demand Medicare for all--humane, equitable, cost-effective, and easily implemented.
Put your money (or vote) where your mouth is posters of Massachusetts. Brown and Coakley are both agents of big business, the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Vote Kennedy as a third party candidate. I know he's been portrayed as a crazy 'tea party' conservative but check out his views for yourself. They align with many more of progressive principles than either major candidate. The two party system is a joke, let's fight back.
http://joekennedyforsenate.com/
BTW- I don't work for his campaign, actually just looked into the guy myself a few days ago.
www.mindwafers.com
My husband and I are both sick and disgusted about the Massachusetts election. I contributed to the Coakley campaign. But she was a very weak candidate. When I heard how she handled a sex offender case, where she ramrodded it through (as so many of these have been), I was disgusted that I supported her. This particular case had no solid evidence, only an accusation that a man put a knife inside someone's genital area WITH NO MARKS !!
There are so many cases of false accusations because of teens acting out, divorce/separation cases, and then non-violent cases, esp. to children that are now in felony categories instead of misdemeanors so that the MAJORITY of sex offenders on the registry are now non violent. Coakley supported a horrendous case where there was no really solid evidence and a family was ruined. It just makes me sick how much the Adam Walsh act has contributed to all this miscarriage of justice. And Ms. Coakley made things even worse.
There are so many people on the very popular and public whipping post registry now, that the truly dangerous pedophiles, like Gerrido, can hide right under law enforcement's noses. And the numbers grow exponentially every year.
But it's a boondoggle for unscrupulous politicians and drama-driven media types, ala Nancy Grace. It's the most popular witch hunt around. You'd think every Romeo/Juliet case, every public urinator, even men visiting 15 yr. old prostitutes who look older and lie about their age are dangerous to CHILDREN.
This is a crime but it helps us win the contest for the most overpopulated prison system in the world too, even more than China and Russia...what a country.
In the meantime, so many people's lives are being ruined and the vigilante's get whipped up to go after those everybody-loves-to-hate public sex offenders. What a justice system. If you care, go to:
go to: http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org/index.php
http://www.false-allegations-team.com/
MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS
http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/E50B1B1FEAFB074D862576270008B6CA?OpenDocument
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164614
The health insurance industry seems to have its bases covered between both parties. The stocks went up when the bill looked like it was going to pass; the stocks went up when it looked like the bill was going to fail.
I surmise the industry stands to gain if things continue on their usual and precipitous course; the industry stands to gain if the legislation goes through.
So how do we cover the most bases for ourselves?