Arizona Death Panels: State Revokes Funding for Heart Transplants, Opts to Save Squirrels
Taking heartless insurance cuts to a whole new level, the Arizona legislature has decided to revoke the funding it authorized for nearly 100 transplant patients. Why did the state, after giving these people hope, decide to literally take their lives away? According to NPR, the state looked at the data and determined that transplant patients don’t usually live very long after the transplant so it wasn’t worth the investment. Yes, the same state whose representatives filed a lawsuit challenging the new health care law because it requires people to purchase health insurance has decided to cut the health insurance of heart transplant patients. Maybe if these people had to buy private insurance they wouldn’t have to depend on the whims of a seriously moronic state legislature. From NPR:
The patients receive medical coverage through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s version of Medicaid. While it may be common for private insurance companies or government agencies to change eligibility requirements for medical procedures ahead of time, medical ethicists say authorizing a procedure and then reversing that decision is unheard of.
Now something is nagging me about this and the whole idea that a panel of people could get together and decide whose life was worth saving…. Oh, that’s right! I remember the wise sage Sarah Palin saying something like this:
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote last week.
I guess if you live in Arizona you do have to stand in front of a death panel so the bureaucrats can decide if you’re really deserving of a new heart. I guess they’ve decided that heart transplant patients have already spent enough time living with their wife and 3-year-old son and don’t really need to see that kid graduate from high school. The patient probably won’t make it there anyway, right? No, that’s not evil at all.
What’s even worse is that NPR says Arizona cherry-picked the data they used to show that transplant patients don’t live very long:
The state’s data also show the procedures have poor outcomes and that most patients die after the transplants. But critics say the data was cherry-picked, as it included only patients enrolled in AHCCCS and only for a two-year period.
A coalition of Arizona transplant centers, including well-known programs at the University of Arizona and the Mayo Clinic, recently gave the state data for a broader patient group and a longer time period. It showed much better outcomes.
But, good news, the state will save about $4.5 million this year. Programs they didn’t cut that cost that much? They decided to spend $1.25 Million to “build bridges for endangered squirrels over a mountain road so they don’t become roadkill.” Yes, they are willing to spend more than a million dollars to save five squirrels a year, but not to give someone a new heart. Now that’s a heartless death panel.
You can listen to NPR’s story here:
The Dawn of the Same Old Era
Does the House GOP Leadership actually expect us to believe that they will somehow create change we can believe in despite being totally unable to articulate and carryout a vision in the previous two years?
The fact that there’s a huge split in the GOP leadership between Palin’s camp, the Tea Partiers, and traditional GOPers (whom I think still exist in the form of Jerry Moran) leads me to believe that it’s even less likely they’ll get their act together and present some sort of cohesive plan to “lead” the American people.
Just today, you had a directive go out from a top GOP strategist telling Republicans not to get too grandiose in their initial actions but rather target very specific provisions of the Obama Health Care Bill for repeal (which will never pass anyway as the Democrats retain the Senate). In response, Sarah Palin went off saying Republicans needed to be bold and tear down that wall of Obama Healthcare!
Then there’s former President George W. Bush whose starting to step back into the spotlight decrying the way he was treated while in office saying things like he thought about replacing Cheney and that the worst moment of his Presidency was when Kanye West called him a racist (yes, worse than 9/11, worse than Katrina, worse than the economic collapse). I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Obama draft GW for some sort of initiative that he would be willing to take on for the sake of proving he’s not the asshole everyone made him out to be. (Did you see all the shots of him during the World Series? Mr. Mopey.)
Bohner’s never been able to get the GOP to fall in line behind him even when his President was asking him to. How’s he going to coral the crazies like Michelle Bachman and all the other Tea Party Palindrones? I’ll see it when I believe it.
Until then, I expect to see a whole bunch more of what I saw the last two years: Eric Cantor giving great soundbites as the GOP leadership remains totally ineffective and out of touch.
Kansas Candidate Sees Dead People
As I was standing in church on Sunday I overheard one of the men I go to church with say, “Just glad to find out I’m not dead.” Apparently at a debate between the two candidates for Secretary of State earlier in the week Idiot (with a capital “I”) Kris Kobach cited my fellow churchgoer’s vote in August as one that was cast by a dead man. He says it’s proof that dead people are voting all across Kansas. I’m sure they’re voting mostly Democratic as we all know how liberal ghosts can be. From the Lawrence Journal World:
But Bill Gale, Sedgwick County’s election commissioner, said the vote [cited as a fraudulent vote by Kobach] was cast by the deceased man’s son [my friend from church], now in his 70s. He said registration records automatically listed the voter’s date of birth as Jan. 1, 1900 because only ages, not dates, were required when he first registered in 1964.
Kobach, who has degrees from Harvard, Yale and Oxford, terrifies me. He has our “best interest” at heart and that means trouble. He’s also made huge money off of illegal immigration: he helped draft the outrageous Arizona immigration law and taught officers how to enforce it, he’s joined forces with immigrant hating, crazy sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County, and Kobach started a program at the Justice Department to force Muslims who were in the country legally as immigrants to re-register. He’s also a proud member of the “birther” movement.
I have already resigned myself to the fact that I must live with Sam Brownback as my Governor, but I’m really hoping the moderate Republicans in this state can pull this race out and keep Democrat Chris Biggs as our Secretary of State.
Kansas Ready to Elect First Socially Conservative Governor
Yes, you read that headline right. Despite all the “What’s the Matter with Kansas” and evolution no evolution knocks Kansans have had to endure we have never, ever elected a Governor who was socially conservative. Moderates have reigned supreme (sometimes thanks to a split in the Republican party) but that party is coming to an end. With the death of Dr. George Tiller and all of his political money, coupled with a Kansas Democratic party who failed to talk the current sitting Democratic Governor into running and couldn’t recruit anyone else worth anything to run, Senator Sam Brownback is poised to take over the Governorship. And with Brownback’s election comes the harsh winds of social change that have been held at bay for the past 20 years (if not since we joined the Union on January 29, 1861).
Mark Parkinson, Kathleen Sebelius, Bill Graves, Joan “Crazy” Finney who replaced Republican Governor Mike Hayden after he raised property taxes, John Carlin…. Not a one in the bunch of previous governors comes as close to being as socially conservative as Sam Brownback and not a one would fit in with the Tea Party. Parkinson, Sebelius, Graves, Hayden, Carlin were all pro-choice. Finney, a democrat, happened to be pro-life but was not socially conservative on a number of other issues. Not that abortion is the be all end all of social issues but it is a good bellwether for predicting where someone stands on social issues.
Brownback is pro-life. Hard core. Of course, he did call a colleague prior to his first campaign for Senate and inquire “which side of the issue” he should come down on. (This is based on my own personal knowledge of the situation) When informed it was “kind of a personal choice” Brownback decided that he was vehemently pro-life and had always been. He went so far, to back up this claim, as to adopt children and convert to Catholicism.
I don’t think Kansans know what’s coming. I think they see Brownback as harmless and he is, contained in the Senate. However, at the helm of a crazy legislature that has proposed all kinds of crazy things only to be stopped by a gubernatorial veto, he is dangerous. He will sign what they put in front of him. You won’t find any moral stands from this guy protecting women, children or minorities. He’ll be in position to appoint Supreme Court judges, and all the other members of a myriad of state boards that stand between Kansans and their rights.
This state was founded by crazies, but we were, and are, a bunch of socially progressive, moderate crazies. At least most of us. Those of us who aren’t moderate, middle of the road types run for state office and make up the majority of state legislators. (See Brenda Landwehr). And now they’ve got their ringleader elected Governor. Forget “What’s the Matter with Kansas.” When Brownback gets elected it will be “Kiss Your Civil Rights Ass Goodbye, Kansas.”
O’Donnell Doesn’t Like Any Part of First Amendment
After having discovered that the separation of church and state is contained in the First Amendment, Christine O’Donnell has now set out to squash another part of the First Amendment, free speech. While she’s not yet a member of Congress (nor apparently will she be) that hasn’t stopped her campaign from threatening to sue a radio station if they posted video of her doing an interview with them.
O’Donnell’s campaign had threatened to sue WDEL-AM to stop release of the Wilmington station’s video of a live radio interview Tuesday on “The Rick Jensen Show.”
In part of the video, O’Donnell signals to a spokesman while she’s being pressed about how she would have handled a county budget differently than her Democratic opponent Chris Coons.
The station says campaign manager Matt Moran called later and threatened to “crush” WDEL-AM with a lawsuit if it didn’t destroy the video.
Memo to O’Donnell: the way to keep a video out of the national spotlight is not to threaten the station but to ignore it completely. Now, everyone and their dog will see the video because you raised such a fuss. In fact, here it is:
Fairly worthless piece of video and not really sure what she’s upset about other than the fact that she snapped her fingers for an aide to come stand by her side when she was getting pissed. I’m assuming she was about to walk off the show but then decided against it. After the fact, O’Donnell’s campaign tried to claim that the radio station didn’t have permission to film her “live” interview and then air the video. The radio station states it did have permission as it was obviously setting up the camera prior to the start of the interview.
This whole Palin/O’Donnell thing of chastising the press and refusing to grant them access or interviews while threatening them and then turning around and claiming their own first amendment rights have been violated because people criticized what they had to say is ridiculous. The fact that the criticism is an exercise of free speech, the fact that the press asking questions is a part of free speech seems to be lost on them. In fact, they don’t understand the First Amendment at all.
Cash for Candidates: Bailout Money Going Into Campaigns
So my tax dollars can’t be used to help a destitute woman get a federally funded abortion because there are people out there who find that morally reprehensible, but my tax dollars can be used to fund the re-election campaigns of Republican Reps John Boehner and Eric Cantor, two men I find morally reprehensible? According to the Washington Post:
The two top recipients of money from companies receiving TARP funds are the top two House Republicans, Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) with $200,000 and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) with $187,000. They are followed by the ranking members of two key House committees, Spencer Bachus (Ala.) on Financial Services and Dave Camp (Mich.) on the tax-writing committee.
The Republican Party itself is getting some of the bank contributions. Seven financial firms have given the maximum $15,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in each of the past two years, including American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs – a total of $210,000.
The Democrats, on the other hand, are apparently forcing these companies (with the exception of Capital One) to pay back their TARP money before accepting their contributions. So once again we have the Republicans railing against tax payer bailouts in theory but ultimately loving the windfall profit it provides their former companies, their states, and now, their campaigns.
Mitch McConnell, who voted against the federal bailout of General Motors, is now taking a $5,000 donation from them. Is there no end to the hypocrisy?
The Goons Behind the Loons
Remember Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall? What a long time ago it was that political machines controlled party nominations and patronage. Ah, the days of yesteryear when machines could put whomever they wanted on the ticket or get any crazy law passed they wanted. For instance, getting a pseudo-doctor or a witch the nomination for Senate. Or, passing a law that allows industries to pollute as much as they want. Wait, what’s that? That’s happening now?
So who are the present day William Tweeds? Let’s start with David and Charles Koch. They’ve got billions and they’re pouring it into the Tea Party, they poured millions into getting Prop 23 passed in California which would repeal the state’s key climate and clean energy laws, they’ve got Supreme Court Justices in their back pockets.
Then you’ve got Joe Ricketts, founder of Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs, whose poured $600,000 into the Nevada Senate race to defeat Harry Reid.
Then there’s Rupert Murdoch, who ONLY became an American citizen (birthers, where are you?) so he could own American TV stations, who controls the largest, most watched news organization in America, who is pouring money into Republican campaigns because “It is in the best interest of the company“!
And these are the people we know about. According to Democracy 21:
this year, there is a massive infusion of special-interest money into U.S. politics that is secret, not reported. Corporations and other interests will spend more than $250 million of undisclosed funds to affect the outcome of the Nov. 2 national elections.
That’s incredible. I actually don’t oppose corporate spending in elections, but I think there should be total transparency. I think you should know that the owner of the Cubs wants Harry Reid out of office and that he’s willing spend more than half a million dollars to get it done. The only reason we know that fact is because he admitted it. He didn’t hide behind the 501(c)(4) organizations that so many others are hiding behind.
They should have to run at the end of a campaign ad all the disclosures that they require of anti-depressant ads. “This ad was brought to you by David and Charles Koch. They operate under the name Tea Party. Their annual income is in the billions. Listening to what they have to say may cause dizziness, lightheadedness and the inability to vote for the most qualified candidate. You may find out the next morning that you put someone in the Senate who just got their college degree this year. There is no legalized morning after election pill so you’re SOL on that one. Good luck.”
Dumb as Rocks Momma Grizzlies
When did all the bright, intelligent, women running for office get replaced with these dumb as rocks Momma Grizzlies? This “chick” Christine O’Donnell who is running for Senate in Delaware debated her opponent at a law school. When she says, “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” you literally hear gasps and laughter from the educated audience. Her opponent, Chris Coons, who is a lawyer, tried to explain the First Amendment to her. She then later had no idea what the 14th Amendment was or why it might be an issue.
I’ll let Anderson Cooper take it from here:
O’Donnell apparently never graduated college until finishing up coursework in the summer of 2010 at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She also claims to have studied the Constitution extensively and received a “graduate fellowship” from the “Claremont Institute.” As Anderson Cooper points out the Claremont Institute is a conservative think tank and the “graduate fellowship” lasted a whole of 7 days. Apparently they didn’t have time to get to the Bill of Rights or any of the other Amendments.
Throw in O’Donnell’s bizarre education with Palin’s tortured college experience and you’ve got a real trend in female candidates towards idiocy that just keeps growing. I can not recall any other women ever touting that they weren’t educated. Perhaps it’s because women are usually discriminated against and we would rather appear bright and on top of our game than dumb and trigger happy. Meanwhile, you have a President who is an actual constitutional scholar and yet the loons would rather have the grizzlies who belong to strange, fringe churches and practice witchcraft in office. Is literally no one paying any attention to who these people really are when they run for office?
**UPDATE**
If you’d like a copy of O’Donnell’s Constitutional Fellowship course syllabus, TPM has it HERE. In her defense, they did not go over the First Amendment. They did spend a lot of time on Roosevelt’s writings because that has a lot to do with what’s in the Constitution.
Gill Gives Jayhawk Fans Hope
Hope is a fragile thing and Turner Gill holds the hopes of an entire Jayhawk nation in his hands. Will he continue the dream and help the Hawks crush Southern Miss or will he crush my ongoing bliss that’s resulted from a Jayhawk victory AND a Chiefs victory? (Arrowhead’s in the house!) I’ve seen Hope. I know what Hope is. I usually find it around the middle of March as I sit in front of my TV waiting for the tip of the first KU NCAA Tournament game. My bracket is pristine, I’m waiting with baited breath to fill in the Jayhawks in the second round….
And then I’ve known Despair. It’s the end of the first weekend of games and teams with names that start with “B” or Northern Iowa are pounding on my brain, laughing at me, causing me to tear my bracket in half, run into the street and scream, “Why? Why, God, Why?? That team was so fat! F-ing Missouri Valley!!”
Please, Turner, bring us some of that Cornhusker magic (the regular season kind, not the post-season kind) and lead KU into Mississippi for the first time and beat the Golden Eagles. I only ask that you do this one thing for me. That, and beat Missouri. And K-State. And probably Nebraska (Big Ten Traitors). And PACthetic Colorado. Please.
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Preivew: Jayhawks vs. Southern Mississippi
Jayhawk fans, do you have Eagle Fever? Anyone? (Why would you have a school cheer that sounds like the guy from Ferris Bueller?)
A big crowd will be gathering in Hattiesburg, Mississippi around 11:30 on Thursday. The Fedora Football group. They’ll be eating lunch with the Golden Eagles head coach Larry Fedora at the Trent Lott Center! *yikes* (Why would you have lunch in a building named after Trent Lott. Isn’t there a Brett Favre building on campus somewhere??) They had to move their lunch to Thursday because they’re playing the Hawks Friday night. That’s right! Jay-jay-jay-hawks! (Always Sunny? Anyone?) There is apparently lots of free parking on Championship Lane for the event, as I would imagine there would be given there aren’t a lot of championships coming out of Southern Mississippi University. Although, to be fair, they have two more national championships in football than KU.
