And, with that, the GOP roadside Senator would return to his home only to find a note written by his wife …
 

Hey, Asshole - You promised me this. You promised me that. You did nothing. I’m leaving you, you egocentric, spouse-neglecting, hooker-screwing, secretary-banging, panty-sniffer. Go fuck yourself. June  :-)

 
SENATOR – Note to Blackberry:
 

Right. As Chris Matthews correctly pointed out, the Republicans haven’t been proactively engaged in Health Care since Abraham Lincoln. Indeed, with the new entertainment of Health Care reform, the Republicans have only one entity to blame for such a consideration:

Themselves.

Oh, yes … they concede that the current system (in whatever year) “has it problems”, but they’ve done that before – several times, in fact – even suggesting they had their own, better plan, curiously unrevealed except in the most vague of terms ... if at all. Point of fact, the only time the Republicans come to the podium on this issue is when a Democrat takes the stage first.

This is quite understandable for the conservative movement – as if conservatism has ‘movement’. Its very nature is one of standing at idle or engaging reverse gear (by their own admission). Indeed, if conservatives were automotive designers they’d be touting the benefits of carburetors over the fuel injected delivery premiered by the progressives. It’s not in their makeup to create or innovate. To change. All is well, after all, as thought. Or it was until the progressives came by and started to fuck with things some time after 1955 or so. With that, the conservatives would soon become The Chevy Big Block of American politics. Perhaps the Oldsmobile.

Conservative Republicans see no particular need for change – understand – and, as such, outside of merely ‘holding the fort’, it has made them the most uninspired, do-nothing, lazy fucks in all of politics (since around 1865). And this, their attribute. They actually promote it with boastful pride.

Now, what keeps these indolent thumb-twirlers afloat at all is the fact that liberalism has, indeed, fucked up with several of its own ‘experiments’. Their prototypes. Their concept cars. It’s what conservatism must rely upon as they, themselves, never have anything new on the display floor in their own showroom. Christ, they don’t even have a showroom. For, as of this writing, the alternative Republican ‘plan’ is merely the truncation of the Obama plan, containing no original thought of its own. The principle ‘edit’? The ‘Public Option’ which is … what’s the word? … an option. Or, as it’s known in conservative circles: Fascistically imposed Socialism.

But whether Nationalized Health Care is a good thing, long overdue – or decidedly defective in its nature – the conservatives have, on this issue, lost my support – not out of the gate, mind you. But over time. And they have done so by their own hand – not by way of the pumped promotional efforts of progressives. Summarily, the conservatives deserve to lose. They’ve earned such abandonment with a long legacy of broken promises, vague and hollow alternatives, wholesale negligence, and the unreserved perpetuation of complete bullshit, having the most casual relationship with the truth. For this, may they lose – and lose badly. And they will. If not in this round, the next one. Or the one after that. And let the insurance industry fall with them, for all I care.

Together, they can commiserate as the new health care system forges on, as told … with mandated euthanasia, free Late-Term Abortion Tuesdays, Hooded Death Panels, holding sickles – and the newly revitalized extermination of the Jews.

Such are the desperate ploys of the conservatives – along with those they truly represent – as they collectively have their ‘Oh, shit’ moment. As in, ‘this could actually happen. Fuck me’.
 

The conservative movement has always enjoyed the benefit of having the educated and well-read carry their intellegent and reasoned message. Here we see yet another reason to hate the Chinese.

“Let’s concede that some reform is needed – as before. Tell the people that we have a plan … all of a sudden – just as before”, pleas the conservative.

Hell, even the insurance companies have now developed new ‘plans’ of their own … all of a sudden, spending millions of ‘premium dollars’ on television advertising campaigns … without a dram of specificity – even on their own expansive, long-form websites. But they have a plan … somewhere.

And where, you may ask, have the Conservative Republicans and the Insurance Giants been over the past two decades or more?

Doing drinks.

The Best Fuck in the World Doesn’t Matter When She Has Gonorrhea

America is simply the best country in the world. We all know it … even if only 11% of us have ever been to any other country in the world, no less lived in one – or even took a quick look by way of a choreographed bus tour, through the tinted windows. And no, NASCAR Conservatives … Epcot Center doesn’t count. America, regarded as superior to all – by all … even though that the technical majority of us (more than half) live and die within 100 miles of where we were originally born, including the adventurous sojourns to a rowdy Town Hall meeting and a Six Flags Theme Park adventure, for the lucky few. But we Americans, as sophisticated renaissance people, still know that America is tops. Discernment among the Hayseeds where McDonalds serves the best hamburger … of choice.

But no Greatest Country on Earth can be regarded as such without its required companion piece: The Greatest Healthcare System in The World. No, never mind that several of our most advanced surgical procedures were procured from socialized medicine (though so few seem to know it, merely assuming that we ‘invented everything’). After all, if it weren’t for “borrowed techniques”, we’d still be sawing off the top of the skull whenever we went in to work on the brain.

And never mind that a host of our most advanced medical technologies were developed in other countries with socialized medicine. See who holds the patents, you simpletons. Christ, next time you’re visiting someone in the hospital, just spin that equipment array around and see where it may well be made. Then run down to the lab and behold. Even our lab-based imaging devices comes out of Olympus of Japan, Nikon microscopes … from Japan, as well as from Leitz (Leica) of Germany. See who makes the incubators while you’re at it.

Next stop: The Operating Theatre. Here, again, virtually all imaging devices are not only made – but were developed – in socialized medicine countries. We couldn’t even perform our surgical ‘marvels’ without the snake cameras coming out of socialized medicine. The surgical knives? Soligen, Germany. But we do our own bandages and shit, it should be noted.

But hell, you couldn’t even get an aspirin if it weren’t for a socialized country. That would be Germany … yet again. The first antiviral vaccine? That would belong to France. First to isolate insulin and make it injectable? That trophy goes to … Canada. Interferon? A partnership between Scotland and Switzerland. Penicillin, you ask? The UK and Australia, jointly. Shit, the very first discovery of viral infection, itself, belongs to The Netherlands. The list goes on … and on. And most Americans credit them all … to America.

In truth, as a matter of verifiable fact, if it weren’t for the serums, procedures, and toys of socialized medicine, this Greatest Healthcare System in The World … wouldn’t have much of its healthcare system to begin with.

But okay, okay … so we steal shit from socialized countries, but make them better … somehow. Do them better. That must be it …

America's Healthcare System, Third Leading Cause of Death

Okay … now who the fuck headlined this communist propaganda bullshit? Well, that report would be found in ‘The Journal of The American Medical Association’ (2000, July 26) as a ‘heads up’ … to itself. As reported, “In spite of the rising health care costs that provide the illusion of improving health care, the American people do not enjoy good health, compared with their counterparts in the industrialized nations.” (quote)

In that I didn’t see the above reported on FOX News, surely ‘The Journal of The American Medical Association’ jests … But seemingly not. The journal cited some actual numbers … (pardon the actual copy and paste here, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t inadvertently add a digit or something) …

“The medical system has played a large role in undermining the health of Americans. A total of 225,000 Americans per year have died as a result of their medical treatments:

• 12,000 deaths per year due to unnecessary surgery

• 7000 deaths per year due to medication errors in hospitals

• 20,000 deaths per year due to other errors in hospitals

• 80,000 deaths per year due to infections in hospitals

• 106,000 deaths per year due to negative effects of drugs (not overdose)

Thus, doctor-induced deaths are the third leading cause of the death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer.”

Now, THAT’s being Number One – for, adjusted to respective populations, no other industrialized country compares. Boy, that sucks, huh? (I wrote the ‘sucks’ part, not ‘The Journal of The American Medical Society’. But, referencing to the report, as concluded (and not by me) …

“In order to improve the medical system, American policymakers and the medical establishment need to adopt a comprehensive approach and critically examine the failure of the richest country in the world to provide decent health care for its people.”

Now, this isn’t a report from that nasty, socialistic World Health Organization that ranked the American Healthcare System at 37th in the world (even as America is among the voting members, never once placing itself in even the Top 20, among its own votes). This was from the American Medical Association – now likely on the conservative’s perpetual ‘Shit List’ after supporting them so vehemently for so many years, the ungrateful little fucks.

Now, would ObamaCare or any form of National Health Care change any of the aforementioned? No.

But … while a handful of my conservative friends often state that socialized medicine has been “nothing but a dismal failure in any country that offers it”, by the conservative’s own standards – the very ones of their own choosing – their own privatized system doesn’t fare any better … worse, in fact, in a number of parameters. For while conservative pundits will often cherry-pick scenarios among Canada and the UK regarding cancer survival rates, overall survivability rates – among a host or illnesses – is generally lower in The States than that of several countries with a national health plan … dozens of them, in fact, as written by the American Medical Association, themselves. And several countries beat our cancer survival rates, as well.

By the way, in a related aside, it was noted and written over 10 years ago that English men, in particular, would reject the notion of seeking medical attention or receiving even a routine medical check-up, as a matter of form. Their arms would have to pretty much fall out of their sockets before they went to see anyone – and even then, they tried to fix it at home with a staple gun. A phenomenon so disturbing to the National Health Service, they experimentally tried installing the facilities for checking one’s blood pressure in the Pubs where men would congregate. It was this trend, noted long before this current debate, that profoundly contributed to cancer survival rates. By the time the English would seek medical care … it was pretty much too late. And no, it had nothing to do with ‘wait lists’ or lack of sophisticated equipment. This was widely reported a decade ago, but seemingly not reported on this day by way of FOX News. For conservatives, as the gate-keepers to all things Christian, have – of late – become the grand ‘Liars of Omission’, bordering on the pathological.

But okay, if so … surely our Health Insurance industry is the Best in The World (as there are so few countries that have a health insurance industry to compete). But not so fast, Kato … Noooo … In fact, a class action suit of 900,000 plaintiffs (nine hundred thousand) was brought against one of the nation’s largest and “most respected” health insurers, Blue Cross / Blue Shield, under the federal RICO act. Yeah …

And who were these 900,000 people, you may wonder? Those irrationally ungrateful patients looking for some quick cash at the expense of other patriotic Americans who pay elevated premiums in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, increasing the cost of healthcare for all? Noooo … The 900,000 little shits were … physicians. As reported:

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina was among 23 Blues plans across the country that Friday announced a $128 million settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by 900,000 physicians regarding the insurers' business practices. Numerous state medical societies were involved in the lawsuit, which charged that Blue Cross plans harmed doctors (and their patients) with unfair business practices that denied and delayed payments for medical care. The complaint identified numerous Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans as defendants in a scheme to defraud doctors in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)." [Herald-Sun, 4/28/07].

…… in other words, the principle active members of ‘The Greatest Healthcare System in The Entire Mother-Fucking Universe’ flipped their collective birds at one of the nation’s largest insurers and resoundingly said, “fuck you.”

While FOX News commentator, Bill O’Reilly, rejects the conservative label, conservatives have seemingly made him ‘their own’, nevertheless. So, with that, O’Reilly has said that “Misbehavior by the insurance companies is rampant” (Talking Points – 09-10-2009). And, on the very same program he conceded that aggressive (governmental) oversight of the insurance company is required – in any event. Oh … he also asserted that while ObamaCare would be expensive, much of that would be offset by the state and local governments saving billions of dollars on the other end. So email him – not me.

Now, I’ve casually “test marketed” all of the above verifiable facts with a handful of conservatives. Four of them just didn’t acknowledge them – as if they didn’t read it, never saw it. One cited them, with a dismissive air, as being in defiance of everything they had ever heard. ….. Yeah, and so much more to the point. The problem: All of the above is factual.

So, would this not be a personal endorsement of Obama Care? No. I, instead, am indicating that The States doesn’t necessarily represent the finest healthcare system in the world, rendering all other countries as being just so ‘third world’.

Still, the conservative counters – as part of an ongoing mantra – that people fly in from all over the world to be treated in The States. Now here’s the part they don’t tell you – and likely don’t even know, as they’re just a bunch of research-free lemmings, cloning half-truths among themselves. The problem: Technically, more heads fly out of The States for care than the other way around. And not just the rich luxuriating in a clinic in some Scandinavian country ... Also those with dual-residency status, commonly ‘flying home’ for the big shit. But not just them. No. Naturally born Americans heading into Central America, South America – even third-world Mexico – for a variety of procedures … at about one-third of the cost, using the same equipment and general facilities. And yes, they return alive. Completely. Beyond these people, you have yet others entering into marriages of temporary convenience just to get on the ‘Canadian Wait Lists’. But to the central point – again – there are technically more people flying out of The States for their medical needs, than flying in. They just didn’t tell you that part.

In any event, I recently asked someone in The UK if they’d opt for their privatized system (yes, they have one) in favor of National Health Care, as part of an apples and oranges consideration. He indicated that he would … if he could afford it. Twenty-four hours later, he reconsidered. Perhaps he researched it, unlike conservatives in The States. After all, a privatized system is always superior, as told, so there’s really no need for the conservative to research things …

I, myself, would examine the private UK healthcare provider, BUPA Heartbeat – among the largest in The Kingdom. Let’s not consider what they cover. It’s, perhaps, more instructive to see what they don’t accommodate … Here’s the list …

NOT COVERED:

• Ageing, menopause

• AIDS / HIV

• Allergies or allergic disorders

• Chronic conditions (I like that one)

• Complications from excluded or restricted conditions (see membership guide)

• Convalescence, rehabilitation and general nursing care

• Deafness

• Dialysis

• Drugs and dressings for out-patient or take-home use

• Treatment to correct eyesight

• HRT and bone densitometry

• Overseas treatment and repatriation

• Physical aids and devices

• Pre-existing or special conditions (how American of you)

• Pregnancy and childbirth (shit out of luck)

• Screening and preventive treatment (nope)

• Sleep problems and other disorders

• (And my personal favorite) …Temporary relief of symptoms

This would represent the short list, mind you – there’s more, but you get the trend. Now, in Conservative Land, this would be the preferred system as it’s privatized. It’s – you know – free-market, and shit. And this is the part that BUPA advertises and makes freely available on their own website (unlike their American contemporaries).

Now … if the Republicans were smart – and they’re not, of late – they wouldn’t be focusing on the purported failings of the UK’s National Health Care, as they are. They’d be drawing attention to the deficiencies of their privatized system as an example of what can potentially become of private care when it’s forced to compete with a more socialized system. No, it wouldn’t actually be an entirely fair argument, mind you – as, in The UK, it is the privatized system that is the distant-second, also-ran … But at least it would give the Republicans some new material to work with, rather than the repeated recitation of the talking points they’re been using for the past 40 years. But conservatives: not bright. So they’ll never do it. Besides, they’ve backed themselves into a corner by arguing the innate superiority of privatized care over nationalized health care – “in every instance”, as they’ve put it. So they can’t draw that gun. They’re doomed by the very nature of their own argument.

But one of the more interesting ‘arguments’ put forth by the conservative tribe is that the health care system just couldn’t accommodate an additional 40 million, insured people … even as Carl Rove – among countless others of his ilk – have, at their argumentative convenience, ‘recalculated’ the math to suggest that there are really only five million who are uninsured after they re-run the numbers to diminish the ‘overstated problem’ …

ROVE: “Of the uninsured, 9.7 million are not U.S. citizens; 17.6 million have annual incomes of more than $50,000; and 14 million already qualify for Medicaid or other programs. That leaves less than five million people truly uncovered out of a population of 307 million.”

Okay, I didn’t bother to write Carl to let him know that it would be ‘fewer than five million people’ – not ‘less’, as I’ve long recognized that Carl wasn’t an English major, or anything … And never mind the fact that his numbers, as stated, technically aren’t correct.

But still … which is it, boys? 40 million? 5 million? The mean average between the two? Or do the numbers change for the argument of the moment? I mean, if conservatives can’t entirely come together on other issues, at least they should form an official consortium of some sort for their twisted lies, it seems to me. Jeeze. It nevertheless demonstrates the factual contortions and gyrations, combining ‘ping’ with ‘pong’, that the conservatives have been forced to play with.

But let’s go with their first argument (the one that comes before noon, not the other one that comes after lunch) … Never mind that it suggests that all 40 million of the lowly uninsured would be struck by the bubonic plague at once, in an instant – even though most of these people wouldn’t likely be tapping the system for much of anything for some time to come (as admitted by Republicans as part of yet another argument that “there’s plenty of time”). It also suggests that conservatives see no particular merit to expanded job opportunities in the future in “a nation that has always come together, and can … do … anything.” Said another way, if we applied this current defeatist attitude to World War II – and all of the involved industries supporting it … we wouldn’t have been there. Indeed, back when, Republicans didn’t want us to be there, clinging to The Neutrality Act, and fought Roosevelt almost every step of the way, prior to Pearl Harbor … (Ann) … but that’s another story … Be that as it may, the argument (No. 47A), in essence, suggests … “fuck the 40 million people. We’ve got ours.”

But, in truth, the 40 million – or the 5 million – would be the least of it. The people who are the most fucked are those of you with insurance. This, as a unique area where Bill O’Reilly and Michael Moore have oddly been in general agreement. I, with sadness, had to realize this by losing two people who I loved – both with mega-doses of insurance. Both waiting – while insurance companies first denied, then fought among themselves – for a period of time far beyond any Canadian wait list. My loved ones waited … until they died. Beyond this mention, I shall not write about it. And I seldom even try to speak of it.

It is for this reason that – if for nothing else – the insurance industry needs a smack-down of decisive proportions. It is for this reason that Bill O’Reilly is quite correct in this instance. I’m neither pro-regulation or anti-regulation. I take things on a case by case basis. Silly me. But an industry that routinely pays bonuses to those who deny coverage to its already established policy holders requires a schoolmaster with a whip. For, it’s been decisively proven that, once the teacher leaves the room, many children misbehave and tear up the class. And, in this instance … I’m sorry, my conservative friends … but that schoolmaster has to be ‘Big Government’. I don’t necessarily like it. I recognize it. For, infrastructure and defense aside, what is a government for … if not stepping in when an entire industry is fucking people over – repeatedly?

Despite a plan – the ObamaCare Plan, which isn’t actually socialized medicine as far more broadly implemented in other countries – that will have its share of problems … and expenses, the current modus operandi of America’s health care system has necessitated a change. Not a tweak. And the Republicans have had far more than ample opportunity to offer their own propositions when controlling The House, The Senate and The White House. Years of opportunity. Wasted. Quite simply, they can’t be relied upon. And they never can be as long as they see no particular problem, citing America as ‘the envy of the world’, with the finest healthcare system in the world.

For me, personally, I recognize that information is often skewed to socio-political perspectives. This, from any and all sides. But the conservatives have now lost me on this issue because they’ve spoken the greatest of untruths, in spades. – beyond what I had ever seen from them in the past. Far beyond – yes – The Democrats in this instance. Some are outright liars, yes. Others merely carry their water … without checking the actual supply. It is, again, for this reason … that you have lost me ... no matter how frequently this ‘liberal’ has previously defended you – if only to state a position. And all I asked for was an honest position. You’ve lost me.

Finally, as a website frequently cited by many members of the media – both liberal and conservative – I encourage you to visit an area of FactCheck.org … They’ve frequently been used by FOX News. But curiously … not this time:

LINK: Twenty-Six Lies About H.R. 3200

Joseph.

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