Harry Reid - A Walking Medical Mystery!

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced that the Senate would not act on a health care reform package prior to the August recess.

Since any momentum gained for the measure may now be lost, his action could kill any meaningful reform at all.

Frankly, Reid's lack of courage doesn't surprise me.

When push comes to shove, Harry Reid has repeatedly demonstrated that he can be pushed AND shoved.

What IS surprising is that Harry Reid can actually walk around without a spine.

To my way of thinking, a spine isn't the ONLY physical attribute that Harry is without - the other usually comes in pairs, though.









Thanks a lot, Harry.

Nevada - can you lend America a hand here?

WHY Jon Stewart, Late Night Comic, Is America's Most Trusted News Anchor!

This "Obama isn't really a natural-born American Birther Crazyshit™" is getting airtime (therefore lending credence to Insanity™) from the richardnoggins on the Mainstream Media, so I thought I'd play Stewart's take on it. I watched it on last night's show and enjoyed it immensely. I hope you do, too.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
www.thedailyshow.com
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Once again (in an hilarious manner), Stewart gives Idiocy© the treatment it should be receiving from the news media.

A Sign Of The Coming Apocalypse: Jon Stewart, Late Night Comic, Is America's Most Trusted News Anchor!

Time Magazine has conducted an on-line poll to determine who, since the death of Walter Cronkite, now holds the title of America's Most Trusted News Anchor™.

Bizarrely, it's Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

Now, Jon Stewart is not a news anchor. He's the first to admit it.

Stewart uses the news, and his interviews with news makers, as a foil for some pretty brilliant comedy.

As part of that comedy, he often presents his audience with what the "news" actually means.

Perhaps Stewart won because he was sort of the "odd man out" in the poll, which included "real" news persons Brian Williams, Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson.

I don't actually know Jon Stewart, but I do know that he is horrified when people treat him as though he were an actual journalist. He's knows just a comic.

Perhaps Time Magazine included him in the poll as a tongue-in-cheek measure.

But maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart was included because he keeps doing the job that many actual journalists should be doing.

Over and over again.

Congratulations, Mr. Stewart.

I think.

Adding: If readers are interested in how Alaska (and every other state) voted in the poll, you can go here and see.

Cooking The Data On Health Care Reform - The "Unbiased" Lewin Group.

One of the numbers-crunching research firms constantly being touted by the Republicans in their battle to kill health care reform is the Lewin Group.

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, calls them "the nonpartisan Lewin Group."

GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee, refers to the Lewin Group as an "independent research firm."

According to GOP Senator Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah (the second-ranking Republican on the Finance Committee) the Lewin Group is "well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country."

Odd.

The GOP fails to mention that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group... one of America's largest insurers.

The Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a UnitedHealth subsidiary that recently agreed to a $50 million settlement with the New York attorney general, and a $350 million settlement with the AMA, for cooking the books to help insurers shift medical expenses to consumers.

Ingenix supplied its parent company and other insurers with data that understated the "usual and customary" doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care.

No small wonder that the Lewin Group's research "backs up" the insurance industry's opposition to any plan containing a public option... and no small wonder that the Republicans conveniently forget this little detail.

You can read the whole Washington Post article about it here.

Please, Mr. President and Democratic members of Congress:

Call them on this bullshit.

h/t to Bob Cesca.