Health care in France - special support for veterans

With the story of US vets being mistreated upon their return from Iraq I have compared those stories to a close friend and retired WWII wounded vet here in France. Donald is 80 years old and both American and French, his father being a US journalist who came to Europe to cover the WWI news and his mother, a local from Cannes. In November upon his return to France for the winter months, Donald fell ill while we were eating lunch. After a call to the emergency services, an ambulance took him to a local hospital – Val de Grace – where he was tested and monitored. Sadly, the hospital discovered a few very serious and advanced health conditions which can be attributed to avoiding doctor visits due to religious beliefs. (The French system provides a complete health checkup every five years, free of charge.)

A few days after his arrival at Val de Grace, which is one of the most prestigious hospitals in France, the hospital asked us during our daily visit if we knew anything about Donald’s health care coverage. I compared this to my US example where my mother had called 911 when my father was being treated for cancer and upon entering the lobby of the US hospitals – again, after a 911 call – the first thing the hospital wanted to clarify was his health insurance policy, leaving my father waiting in the lobby during a critical time. In France, Donald is officially listed as an injured war veteran (from WWII) so his health coverage is 100%. Not just 100% of the government assigned costs, but 100% of all health care costs which is above and beyond the standard coverage. In the eyes of the French system, Donald sacrificed for his country and so today his country is there to support him in his time of need. Treatment and health care can be at any number of hospitals as opposed to special military hospitals or VA hospitals in the US. Val de Grace just happens to be connected to the military.

Donald spent one month at the hospital in a private room with round the clock care in a hospital that often treats senior politicians from France and the world. They insisted that he stay in order to get his diabetes treatment started properly, so he could adjust and familiarize himself with the treatment. Sending him out alone was not even a consideration and the hospital refused to allow him to leave until we had organized regular medical care at his home in a remote village. Can you even imagine this in the US?

As I listen to the Republican smear machine get started in their attacks on nationalized health care and their quietness during the years of mistreatment of US soldiers returning from Iraq, I have to wonder whose interests they are protecting. From my vantage point I just scratch my head and wonder why this crowd is so against being there for soldiers and citizens who are in need. I know France is not popular with that crowd because France was correct about Iraq, but what I see is a country that actually stands up for its vets and is there during times of need. France is a country that has found a way to implement a top ranked health care system where its people are covered and its veterans are treated with proper care and respect. If the love-the-war-hate-the-troops people can’t grasp these basic ideas they need to realize that they are in the minority because the American people are looking for answers, not another smear campaign.

The right wing crazies can go ahead and make jokes about France and socialized medicine, but let's ask them about why France can serve their vets and their citizens with better health care and for less money. Read More......

Open thread

Disco Saturday night. Read More......

NYT on Coulter calling John Edwards a "faggot"

Good coverage by Adam Nagourney at the NYT (thank you, Adam). Coulter was asked for comment and, true to form, made a hateful idiot of herself. Which only feeds the scandal, and the impression that conservatives are hateful bigots, so keep going Ann, maybe WE should hire you. Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging, bis

As a follow-on to last night's orchid blogging, I wanted to show you just how far the flower has progressed since last night. It's still not open completely, and will probably take several days for the petals to lengthen, but you can see a dramatic difference already since last night. Compare the same flower in the two current pictures below below to last night.



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Susan Collins (R-ME) screwed over Maine (and the nation) on Real ID

That Susan Collins is something else. This week, in one fell swoop, she managed to piss off Chris Achorn -- and the conservative Cato Institute. At the same time, she dissed the Maine Legislature, which voted overwhelming for a repeal of Real ID earlier this year.

A typical week for the junior Senator from Maine. Collins is one of the reasons we're headed towards a very flawed national ID. When Real ID passed, she was the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee but held exactly no hearings on the Real ID. None, not one. See, Susan would never, ever, ever really do anything to upset George Bush. Now, instead of addressing the serious problems with the Real ID, Susan came up with a lame new proposal to keep Real ID alive.

Susan Collins tries to be something to everyone. In doing so, she really does nothing for anyone -- but she does get her name in the paper.

Collins is going to face a very tough challenge from Congressman Tom Allen next year. There are stark contrasts between Collins and Allen. One is that Tom introduced legislation, H.R. 1117, to repeal Real ID.

Maine is a blue state. Tom has represented the first Congressional District, which includes Greater Portland, since 1996. Approximately 72% of the media market in Maine comes out of the Portland-Auburn stations, which comprise the southern part of the state. A good chunk of voters in the Second District, including the very blue city of Waterville (hometown of the venerated George J. Mitchell) was in Tom's District until the last re-districting (in 2002). In the 2006 election, Tom got 60% of the vote without running one t.v. ad – meanwhile, the Democratic Governor was re-elected with only 38% of the vote in a four-way race. Collins best election was in 2002 -- the best GOP year ever, and she got just 58%. A lot has changed since 2002, but not Susan's loyalty to Bush and the GOP. She voted for the war and she can't escape that.

(Plus, Susan has to deal with both Chris and Kay in Maine.) Read More......

Even with the pro-war crowd of eligible young people, there are no military recruiters at CPAC

The right wingers -- and their leader, George Bush -- would rather send other people's kids to war. Mike Stark is at CPAC and notes the glaring absence of military recruiters among the pro-war set:

There are no military recruiters here. No United States Marine Corps. No Army, no Navy, no Air Force or National Guard - hell, not even the Coast Guard is here. Thousands and thousands of College Republicans, but not a single recruiter in sight...

Even the military knows that recruiting at an event like CPAC would be a waste of time. Read More......

Romney and McCain campaigns attack Coulter for calling John Edwards a "faggot"

Note to corporate media: This is news, that's n-e-w-s.

The GOP presidential candidates have begun to weigh in over Ann Coulter's outrageously bigoted comments yesterday at the largest conservative conference of the year. Coulter was the putative keynote speaker of the entire event - her speech was the most widely anticipated of all, according to those who attended. Here's what McCain's camp (McCain didn't even attend the conference, yet they weighed in) and Romney's camp (he did attend) had to say, per the NYT blog, since the real media refuses to cover this story:

Democrats were not the only denouncing Ms. Coulter. “The comments were wildly inappropriate,” said Brian Jones, a spokesman for Senator John McCain, a Republican candidate for president who did not attend.

Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said: “It was an offensive remark. Governor Romney believes all people should be treated with dignity and respect....

....attendees said that Ms. Coulter not only spoke warmly about Mr. Romney but all but endorsed him. No word yet on whether the Romney campaign was taking the endorsement or, acceding to Mr. Dean’s demands that he “denounce her hateful remarks.

Kudos to McCain, and half a kudo to Romney. McCain has gone off the deep end in flip-flopping/sucking up to conservatives on social issues, the war, and more. But in this case, he repudiated Coulter even though he didn't even attend. As for Romney, whose "I'm pro-gay, no, I'm anti-gay" flip-flops make McCain look like Jerry Falwell, per the Times, Coulter all but endorsed him. Is Romney going to welcome that endorsement, or rebuke it, as he should?

And just as importantly, now that Romney and McCain have weighed in, where are the other GOP candidates, and our own PFLAG parent Dick Cheney, who was also there? The following GOP candidates attended, what do they have to say about this outrageous bigotry?

- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
- Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee
- Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
- Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Former Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

And of course, Vice President Dick Cheney.

PS Top NYT reporter Adam Nagourney is the one who writes today's blog post on the Times Web site about this episode. Nagourney says that "There’s some big fallout from the meeting in Washington of the Conservative Political Action Conference." Okay. Then if it's big fall out, New York Times, then how about permitting your premiere political writer to actually write about this story in the dead-tree version of the paper? Read More......

John Edwards' prez campaign Web site down, did fans of Ann "Faggot" Coulter attack?

UPDATE: Their site is back.

Just a coincidence that John Edwards' presidential campaign Web site goes down just twelve hours after Ann Coulter calls him a "faggot" at the biggest conservative conference of the year?

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At GOP fundraiser, Bush politicizes support for troops on the very day his Secretary of the Army gets canned for the Walter Reed scandal

How can the Washington Post print this article and not note the hypocrisy? Bush was giving a political speech about supporting the troops while the Army is enmeshed in a major scandal for not taking care of wounded troops. Bush talks about support for the troops. But talk is very, very cheap from George Bush:

Speaking to a dinner crowd at the century-old Seelbach Hilton Louisville Hotel, Bush defended his decision to send more troops to Iraq. He also criticized those in Congress who oppose the plan, saying, "They have a solemn responsibility to support those who wear the uniform of the United States."

George Bush has had a solemn responsibility to support those who wear the uniform of the United States. He hasn't. And, he can't get away with it. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread -- with a rant

During the 2004 campaign, comedian Whoopi Goldberg told a joke about George Bush at a fundraiser attended by John Kerry. The right wing erupted and the media went agog over it. The Bush White House led the charge against the comedian trying to keep the story alive. Ken Mehlman was particularly riled up. Then everyone in the right wing demanded John Kerry apologize and rebuke Whoopi, who is, again, a comedian.

The traditional media does not hold GOP candidates accountable for the hate speech of top GOP commentators. Didn't hear a peep about Coulter on the Today Show this morning. Even though Coulter is a frequent guest on that show. Besides Fox and UPI, the only outlet to cover Coulter's faggot remark was the LA Times and guess what? No response from the GOP Presidential candidates:

A Giuliani spokeswoman said she had not heard the speech, and a Romney spokesman did not return calls late Friday.

Let's review: comedian makes a joke about the President, media frenzy. On the other hand, top conservative calls a Democratic candidate a "faggot" -- an extremely vulgar term that demeans a significant population of Americans and their families -- at an event attended by all the major GOP candidates and the Vice President of the US and it's not even news. Does Dick Cheney approve of that language? You may recall that his daughter is a very prominent lesbian. When Kerry and Edwards mentioned that true fact, the media also went beserk.

And they say it's a liberal media. So many reporters are just patsies for the right wing.

Not bad for an early Saturday morning rant.

Start threading. Read More......

Republican economics at work - foreclosures and loan defaults

But that's OK, because heaven forbid anyone ever offers regulation because the finance industry that is taking the system to the verge of a crash might not like it. The MIA Republicans have made it their gospel to allow industry - any industry that's willing to fork over campaign cash - to self regulate, telling supporters that government regulation only complicates matters and that the government has made a mess of everything. Take one guess who will be first in line with their hands out, asking for money when the system they built comes crashing down?

While the housing market was soaring, lenders shrugged off borrowers' problems because the value of the property was rising. But now that the housing market is in a tailspin in some areas, as many as 2.2 million people could end up losing their homes, worth a total of $164 billion, according to CRL. Another report, by Lehman Brothers, concluded that as many as 30 percent of people who obtained subprime loans in 2006 may end up defaulting on them.

"Many families are going to lose their homes," says Deborah Goldstein, executive vice president of the CRL in Durham, N.C. "There's a need for federal regulators to address the kinds of abusive mortgage practices that we're seeing."

Last fall federal regulators started to step in, requiring lenders to disclose more clearly the benefits and risks of some subprime loans to borrowers. On Tuesday, Freddie Mac, a quasi-public backer of home loans, announced it would cease purchasing the riskiest subprime mortgages. This week, Fannie Mae, another quasi-public housing organization, said it is working on "rescue" products to try to help troubled borrowers.

Housing advocates believe the regulators are reacting too late. "They're good positive steps but it's not close to being enough – the genie's already out of the bottle," says Mr. Rheingold. "What we're seeing now with the incredibly high foreclosure rates ... is a product of the complete deregulation of the mortgage industry over the last 10 to 15 years."

Republican economics at work and another case study in how to give the shaft to consumers while coddling political donors. Read More......

UPI and FOX cover Coulter calling John Edwards a "faggot," but AP, Wash Post and NYT nowhere to be found

None of the "normal" media (meaning, non-FOX and non-UPI) is touching this story with a ten foot poll. Why is that? It's not like Ann Coulter isn't a big deal. Like it or not, she was on the cover of TIME just, what, a year or two ago? She's a bigot, a loud-mouth, and a jerk, but to write her off as irrelevant is simply a lie. Here is UPI's coverage. Read More......