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The Really Important News

Posted on 10. Jun, 2008 by Brad in Politics | Twitter: @bradhart |

Last night US Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio read out 35 articles of impeachment against President George W Bush. For more than three hours he detailed everything from Election Fraud to War Crimes. This morning I checked the headlines of most news organization websites and my local Dayotn, Ohio newspapers looking for some response to this act. what did I find? Not a Damned thing! Was a call for impeachment less news worthy than Jessica Alba’s new baby or Ken Griffey Jr hitting number 600? I like the thought of anything that comes from between Jessica Alba’s legs. However, I certainly think any agency that calls itself a purveyor of news should give a call for impeachment equal headlines.

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Tags: Age, Art, Dayotn, Dennis Kucinich, George Bush, Jessica Alba, Ken Griffey Jr, Ohio, President, United States

Really Important News

He’s a four-term Republican senator from Arizona, a naval aviator in the Vietnam war, a five and a half year prisoner of war, a 2000 presidential Republican candidate, a 2008 presidential Republican candidate, and now the Republican party’s new front runner; he’s opposed by many conservatives, endorsed by many conservatives, and has been frequently called a political “maverick.”

Whatever he may be or may be called, with John McCain’s much needed win in the Florida Primary he has pushed ahead of the pack as the new Republican front-runner. all eyes are now heavily focused on McCain, and if all things go in his favor from now on he could very well be the Republican party’s next nomination for president.

The primary concern the Republican party has with McCain, the very reason he’s receiving opposition from a number of conservatives, is his record on supporting liberal legislation opposed by his party. in 2002 McCain authored the McCain-Feingold Act, which called for a regulation in financing of political campaigns. through this act, one noticeable impact was in candidates’ ads and commercials where candidates had to appear on-screen to state their approval of the ad.

McCain’s liberal stance on illegal immigration also brings much opposition to his candidacy. in 2007 McCain and senator Kennedy stepped forward to introduce a plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. It included to allow most of the twelve million illegal immigrants to earn legalized citizenship, going against the nation’s “get-tough” stance on illegal immigration.

Thus McCain’s conservative critics include such people as Tom Delay and rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh has expressed his opposition to McCain many times, stating his nomination could “destroy the Republican party.” Delay, who has criticized McCain for years, stated that McCain “has no principles” and if McCain gets nominated that he will not endorse McCain if he won the GOP primary.

McCain however also has many endorsements from the Republican party, ranging from Rudy Giuliani, to the Governor of Florida Charlie Crist, to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But what in fact makes this man a Republican? McCain has a strong conservative voting record in free trade issues, and he opposes socialized health care. he also is in favor of welfare reform and capital punishment.

Many view McCain as a candidate best fit for national security. he has been an advocate of the United State’s military, ensuring that through a McCain presidency he would keep our military ahead of competitors such as China and Russia, respond to any crisis that endangers America’s security, and protect our homeland. McCain also fought for the creation of the 9/11 Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, and the creation of the U.S. Northern Command.

However, unlike President Bush, McCain opposes this administration’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which includes the use of waterboarding, a form of interrogation (which McCain refers to as torture) that involves laying the victim on his back and pouring water over his face to simulate a person drowning.

Indeed Senator McCain is a controversial figure to many conservatives. Regardless, he is pulling ahead of the other Republican candidates and has been catching much of the moderate votes, as seen in the South Carolina primary. If McCain is truly the candidate to beat the Democrat nominee, as stated numerous times in McCain’s presidential ad campaign, then perhaps conservative leaders will be content in knowing that our 44th president won’t be a Democrat.

Who Is John McCain?

Elizabeth Edwards on The Inequitable Individual Market

Our guest blogger is Elizabeth Edwards, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and wife of former Presidential candidate John Edwards.

David Lazarus, in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, brought us a fresh reminder of the challenges posed by preexisting conditions by raising a new one – being a woman.

Senator John McCain’s health plan is based on the idea that everyone should be on their own to buy their health insurance on the individual market. and it’s an approach fundamentally at odds with the point of health insurance: that we share risks. People with preexisting conditions, like McCain and myself, would pay much more for health insurance under his health plan, if we could get coverage at all.

Insurance companies have all sorts of characteristics they look at in order to increase premiums, such as preexisting conditions, occupation, age, and residence. But I hadn’t realized that the McCain plan would enable insurers to “rate-up” my insurance bill for not only my status as a breast cancer patient, but also my gender.

The ability to become pregnant has long been understood as an excuse to charge women more for health insurance (because, of course, men have nothing to do with that particular health condition). But what makes the Lazarus column interesting is that he tells us that insurers are charging women higher premiums even if pregnancy benefits are excluded. Blue Shield of California (Blue Shield) is now charging woman more in the individual market because:

“Our egghead actuaries crunched the numbers based on all the data we have about healthcare,” explained Tom Epstein, a Blue Shield spokesman. “This is what they found.”

That women get sicker than men?

“It’s all about the statistics,” Epstein said.

That doesn’t really inspire a sense of fairness. Doctors recommend that women have mammograms and other preventative screenings. Is Blue Shield really trying to discourage health screenings? do they think that women are more accident prone? whatever their reasoning, one thing is clear – they don’t want to enroll too many women:

“We don’t want to get a disproportionate share of high-risk people,” added Epstein.

As Lazarus noted, “by ‘high risk people,’ what he means is ‘women.’”

Blue Shield, a not-for-profit company, says they are just following the trend of for-profit insurers in California (at least two competitors already adjust premiums based on gender). Blue Shield exists in a competitive market that rewards insurers for doing the wrong things. In that sense, it isn’t fair to pick on Blue Shield in particular, especially since Blue Shield’s CEO speaks constructively on health reform.

The point is that the insurers have given us just another example about how the individual market is fundamentally broken. Embracing it as the solution to our health crisis – as the McCain plan proposes to – will only make matters worse.

Edwards: McCain’s Health Plan Discriminates Against Women