New York Times, November 28th, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still secretly holding inmates for sometimes weeks at a time and without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.

The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. In interviews, former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.

“The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place,” said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who was detained there in June. “They don’t let the I.C.R.C. officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray.” More…

Industry spokeswoman Karen Ignagni immediately threatens retaliation against consumers.

Washington Post, October 21st, 2009

The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to strip federal antitrust protections shielding health insurers from investigations into price fixing and other business practices, the first step in a legislative bid to clamp down on the much-maligned industry.

Although Democrats have led the repeal push in recent weeks, the committee’s 20-9 vote came with the support of three Republicans. The legislation would repeal portions of the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act that allows states to regulate health insurance providers without federal intervention. But critics of the law say that 64 years after its passage, the result has been regional monopolies that inflate premiums and discriminate against people based on their health status, gender and other factors. More…

Republicans scream like stuck pigs; Paul Kirk, 71, former DNC Chairman is seen as likely choice.

Well that was quick! Paul Kirk has been named only minutes after I posted this story!

More at Huffington Post

Boston Globe, September 23rd, 2009

The state Senate approved a bill yesterday that would let Governor Deval Patrick appoint an interim successor to Edward M. Kennedy, paving the way for the appointment of a new US senator as early as tomorrow and providing Democrats in Washington the potential 60th vote they have been seeking to pass a health care overhaul.

The state Senate approved the measure by a 24-to-16 vote, just five days after the House had voted 95 to 58 to change Massachusetts election law and allow the appointment of an interim US senator. Both chambers are planning to give a final procedural endorsement to the measure and to send it to the governor’s desk today; the only potential hurdle is that Republicans are contemplating a last-ditch legal challenge in an effort to derail the legislation.

News of the vote reverberated yesterday from Beacon Hill to Washington, where US Senate majority leader Harry Reid, informed of the news when a note was passed to him, pumped his fist into the air and cracked a small smile, according to an aide. More…

New England Jouranal of Medicine poll of 5,000 physicians from all specialties

Huffington Post, September 14th, 2009

A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public health care option.

A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) study published in Monday’s New England Journal of Medicine shows that 63 percent of physicians support a health reform proposal that includes both a public option and traditional private insurance. If the additional 10 percent of doctors who support an entirely public health system are included, then approximately three out of four physicians nationwide support inclusion of a public option. Only 27 percent support a private-only reform that would provide subsidies for low-income individuals to purchase private insurance.

Surveying a nationally representative sample of 5,157 physicians across America, researchers Salomeh Keyhani, M.D., M.P.H., and Alex Federman, M.D., M.P.H., from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City queried physicians about a range of options for expanding health insurance coverage.

“There should be no confusion about where doctors stand in the debate over expanding health insurance coverage: they want reform,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This survey reveals important information about the perspective of physicians on issues central to the health reform debate. Policy makers should listen to their doctors.” More at Huffington Post…

Here is a link to the New England Journal of Medicine article on the poll.

Organizing for America announces nationwide conference call in response to outpouring of frustration.

In response to an avalanche of emails, phone calls and negative feelings from Liberals, Organizing for America (Obama’s campaign group) announced a national phone confercerence to be held Thrusday, August 20th at 2:30pm Eastern Time (11:30am here in Arizona). Obama will be talking about health care reform and plans “to update us on the fight to pass real health insurance reform — what’s happening in D.C. and what’s happening around the country. He’ll lay out our strategy and message going forward and answer questions from supporters like you. And we’ll unveil the next actions we’ll organize together.”

If you want to participate in the call, you must sign up (RSVP) at a particular website and OFA will call your telephone number on Thursday morning.

Click this link to be taken to the OFA website where you will need to provide your email address, zip code, and a phone number where you’ll receive the call.

Analysis: Liberals tired of health care compromise

Associated Press, August 18th, 2009

WASHINGTON – Frustrated liberals have a question for President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers: Isn’t it time the other guys gave a little ground on health care? What’s the point of a bipartisan bill, they ask, if we’re making all the concessions?

A case in point:

Sen. Charles Grassley, a key Republican negotiator on health care, was on a winning streak as Congress recessed for August, having wrung important concessions from Democrats, including an agreement not to tax employer-provided health insurance and a limit to demands on drug companies.

How did Grassley reciprocate? With an attack that struck Democrats as stunning and baseless. Grassley told an Iowa crowd he would not support a plan that “determines when you’re going to pull the plug on Grandma.” The remark echoed conservative activists who wrongly claim a House health care bill would require Medicare recipients to discuss their end-of-life plans with doctors.

For liberals supporting far-reaching changes to the nation’s health care system, it was another sign that months of negotiations have been a one-way street. It’s time to move on without Republicans, they say. More…

David Keene, ACU chairman, writes a weekly column for several blog sites including The Hill.com.  A three-page letter demanding “pay for play” is exposed.  Caught in bidding war between FedEX and UPS while both companies seeking anti-union legislation from Congress.

Fox News, July 17th, 2009

A prominent conservative group offered to sell its endorsement to FedEx for more than $2 million to help the package delivery company win a contentious legislative dispute, according to Politico.com.

But when FedEx refused to pay the American Conservative Union, the group sided with UPS, FedEx’s rival in the dispute.

FedEx and UPS are battling over a provision being weighed by Congress that would expand union power at FedEx.

The House passed a bill that would force FedEx, which currently has one U.S. union contract for its entire express business, to negotiate union contracts for individual locations — like UPS — which FedEx argues would make it much more difficult to promise worldwide regularity for deliveries. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate.

In a three-page private letter to FedEx dated June 30 and obtained by Politico.com, ACU offered a range of services for the more than $2 million, including “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of ACU’s board of directors.”

After FedEx said it rejected the offer, Keene reportedly signed onto a two-page July 15 letter supporting UPS as part of a conservative consortium that accused FedEx of “misleading the public and legislators.”

“Clearly the ACU shopped their beliefs and UPS bought,” Maury Lane, FedEx’s director of corporate communications told Politico.com.

But Dennis Whitfield, ACU’s executive vice president, said that neither the group nor Keene took any money from UPS and that the group has never received a response to its initial offer to FedEx. He said Keene endorsed the second letter as an individual, even though the letter contained the logo of ACU.

More on this story from Yahoo.com and Politico.com

Conservatives including Jeff Sessions blast Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund for stands on capital punishment, abortion rights, and advocacy for anti-discrimination laws.

“extremist”, “shocking” Sotomayor not fit for bench, insinuated

Associated Press, July 12th, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) — Cesar Perales has fought his share of critics over the years, in legal battles for minorities denied jobs, bilingual classes in schools and more Latino police officers.

But none of those efforts compares with the tempest his Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has stirred because of the dozen years that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor served as one of its board members.

Conservatives have called the group’s stances on capital punishment and abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, “extreme” and “shocking.” Some have suggested Sotomayor’s longtime association with the group is an indication that she is biased and would be unable to render impartial decisions as a Supreme Court justice. More…

McCain: CIA secrecy story just beginning

CNN News, July 12th, 2009

(CNN) — Sen. John McCain thinks we haven’t heard the last about allegations that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered secrecy for a CIA surveillance operation after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“If I know Washington, this is the beginning of a pretty involved and detailed story,” McCain said Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”

According to a New York Times report, Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold information about the unspecified program from Congress. CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Intelligence Committee last month about the program, which he said had been shut down.

McCain said he knew little about the program and offered no details. He said he expected Cheney, who has yet to comment on the story, to speak up.

We agree John, you ain’t seen nothing yet.