Concord Monitor Editorial: Romney is a "phony" and shouldn't be President

Dissed by his two hometown newspapers, The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald, Mitt gets slammed, just slammed, by the Concord Monitor. It's one of the best editorials so far this year:

When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

Ha. Mitt is a phony. Just don't see it in print very often. Read More......

iPhone in a blender

It's serious.

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CIGNA to be sued for manslaughter or murder in death of girl

It would be nice if things did not have to be this way, but this is the way the modern health care industry has evolved. The health care industry in the US is always there when it's time to collect money, but rarely around to help during the tough times. Republicans who pooh-pooh national health care because of wait times (an issue I have never personally experienced in France) can take a look at this health care wait time. Please explain.

It was a shocking, eye opening experience for me when my father was diagnosed with cancer in September 2001. Already facing costly annual premium costs, he was terrified to lose his life savings with expensive treatments. He had one doctor who suggested the possibility of joining a new drug testing program - for $25,000 cash, no insurance - but was turned down because he would not provide enough positive results for their tests.
More on health care in America, after the jump.

The chemotherapy medication ultimately led to the sicknesses that caused his death (something that I discovered was not unusual) and he even had to deal with one charming doctor who stopped in mid-session because "he would not get paid" after my father started with hospice care. A real humanitarian, who joined the profession to help fellow man, no doubt and what a morale booster. While that particular doctor ranks lower than whale poop as a human being, it raised the bizarre and inhumane system that we have allowed. It's all about the money and very little about people. (Well, except the people profiting enormously at the top of this industry.)

The health care system here in France has it's problems and yes it's expensive. I would argue that even with taxes it is still cheaper than the system in the US. I have yet to hear a single person over here ever worry that they are going to lose their life savings because of an illness. Nor have I heard of people here complain about extended delays or insurance companies blocking critical procedures like this. Just last week the EU courts ruled that a patient from the UK could come to France to receive treatment because of UK delays, which I often hear about. All national health programs are not created equal.

Going back to the case of CIGNA denying a transplant, this poor family has to be furious. This was something that doctors said would save this girl and yet the damned insurance company was part of the problem. Who hasn't spent hours on the phone with their insurance company, wondering what they will and won't pay for? Why should people who are in need - and paying outrageous costs, to boot - be treated so poorly? This is possible because our political establishment allows this to happen.

With the economy and health care on target to be hot 2008 election issues, people need to step back and think about who is going to make a difference. The two issues are connected, because health care increasingly is a very big and powerful industry that has much too much control over our lives. From a personal economic perspective, this is costing Americans both in terms of co-payments for coverage not to mention co-pays for actual visits. Costs are going up and look at the return on investment that people are receiving. Are we really seeing any value for that investment?

Americans are always told how great the US system is but the facts say otherwise. What's so great about adding these worries to patients when they are already going through the stress of a life threatening illness? Is this tangled mess really becoming of a great nation? It's clear that it pays pretty well for the health care industry, but as a consumer, who really likes this system?

I am looking forward to hearing CIGNA executives take the stand in front of a jury. Let them explain to all of us how this system works and why they refused treatment to a dying girl. It's time this industry is held accountable but more importantly it's time America makes changes that benefit people and not just business. Who knows...maybe if John Edwards doesn't win the nomination, he will do for health care what Al Gore did for global warming. Read More......

Romney lied during his "I'm a Christian too" speech, said he watched his father march with Martin Luther King - never happened

Not only did Romney not see his father march with MLK, but Romney's father never marched with MLK. This is one hell of a lie, and Romney's explanation of the lie only makes matters worse. From the Boston Globe:

Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised speech this month, and historical evidence shows that Michigan's Governor George Romney and the civil rights leader never did march together.

Romney said his father had told him he had marched with King and that he had been using the word "saw" in a "figurative sense."

"If you look at the literature, if you look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of in the sense I've described," Romney told reporters in Iowa. "It's a figure of speech and very familiar, and it's very common. And I saw my dad march with Martin Luther King. I did not see it with my own eyes, but I saw him in the sense of being aware of his participation in that great effort."

But historical evidence, including news accounts at the time, shows that George Romney never marched with King, though he supported King's agenda.

Saw in the figurative sense? What sense is that? I was a rhetoric major and never, ever, heard anyone use the word "saw" in a figurative sense. He looked it up in a dictionary? That's his best answer as to why he lied to the American people?

Next up: How Romney invented the Internet. I can see an entire campaign here, if this guy becomes the Romney. How Romney saw Churchill. How Romney saw Shakespeare. How Romney saw Jesus.

And it's not the first time Romney lied about all of this...:

Romney has repeated the story of his father marching with King in some of his most prominent presidential campaign appearances, including the "Tonight" show with Jay Leno in May, his address on faith and politics Dec. 6 in Texas, and on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, when he was questioned about the Mormon Church's ban on full participation by black members. He said that he had cried in his car in 1978 when he heard the ban had ended, and added, "My father marched with Martin Luther King."

Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."....

"Clearly, Mitt Romney will say absolutely anything to smooth talk his way to the Republican nomination, even if it means playing loose with the facts on his own father's civil rights record," said Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

Wow. Do the Mormon's have a comandment against bearing false witness? Read More......

The End of the World

I saw this on Boing Boing last night. It's wonderful.

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Merry Christmas, from Mattel

So how will companies such as Mattel respond to the new legislation that Congress passed this week? Among other things, this will help run tests for lead, which is what caused this latest (among many) recall by Mattel. Selling lead tainted toys to kids strikes me as borderline, if not actual, criminal negligence. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out the poem of the week: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. It's from Robert Frost and a great poem for this time of year. A lot of people are feeling like they have miles to go before they sleep.

Should be a slowish news day, so start threading whatever news is out there. Read More......

Blair blocked major corruption investigation, twice

Birds of a feather... Another phony who loved to talk about spreading freedom and democracy but couldn't stand the thought of it for his own country.

Government memos stamped "Secret" reveal that the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, twice tried in vain to stop Blair interfering in the criminal investigation.

His chief of staff told the cabinet secretary, Gus O'Donnell, on October 3 2006: "The attorney general is of the firm view that, if the case is in fact soundly based, it would not be right to discontinue it."

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Wall Street bonuses go up again

This increase is even better than the pay increases Congress gives itself. You just can't lose on Wall Street, even when you lose billions. A few CEOs will not receive bonuses this year and that's great. (Yes, they're still doing just fine even without the bonus.)

Perhaps the most offensive bonus has to go to Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld who is gladly gobbling up a comfortable $35 million, despite record losses due to subprime write-downs. Lehman is also being sued by Australian investors who lost up to 86% thanks to the subprime losses. Investors ought to be fuming, but American taxpayers who are bailing out this crowd ought to be going ballistic. Read More......

California to sue federal EPA over emissions standards

Schwarzenegger is right to be furious about the failures of Bush and his backwards EPA. I wish Democrats could show as much emotion on this subject instead of cowering to to the Inhofe-Dingell crowd.

"It's another example of the administration's failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands," the governor said at a news conference Thursday.
More on both Bush's "plan" and Schwarzenegger's fury after the jump.

Bush on Thursday defended the decision of his EPA administrator.

"Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases? Or is it more effective to have a national strategy?" he said.

Citing the new energy law -- which sets a fuel economy standard for the whole country -- Bush said Johnson "made a decision based upon the fact that we passed a piece of legislation that enables us to have a national strategy."

But Schwarzenegger said he would like to set a higher standard for California. "Anything less than aggressive action on the greatest environmental threat of all time is inexcusable," he said.

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