[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkg6G8iXQI[/youtube]
Rep. Jay Inslee (WA-01) held a press conference this afternoon at Seattle’s Childrens Hospital to announce an agreement struck to correct the dramatic regional disparities between Medicare reimbursement rates, disparities that have penalized Washington’s relatively efficient healthcare delivery system to the tune of tens of of millions of dollars a year. It is also an agreement that, as I will explain later, helps pave the way to a public option.
Above is raw footage of Rep. Inslee’s announcement. Stay tuned for additional footage, selected clips and further analysis.
Thank the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit the 1st CD is represented by Rep. Inslee, who solves real-life problems, instead of an extraterrestrial screwball like Michelle Bachmann who goes around advocating the violent overthrow of our elected government. The people of Minnesota should feel embarrassed that numbskull speaks for their state in Congress.
Today was Bailin’ Palin’s last day on the public payroll. Good riddance! Apparently Alaskans feel the same way — I had lunch last week with a prominent Alaska attorney who told me most folks up there think she’s a quitter.
Blame The CEO!
Traditionally, when an organization failed, the man in charge was blamed — and rightfully so. Most organizational ills can properly be laid at the feet of bad management.
For years, GOPers pounded our ears with accuasations that we didn’t support the troops and were unpatriotic. Of course, we now know Republicans didn’t support the troops worth shit. But there’s more.
Here’s a failure of performance, discipline, and morale that belongs squarely at CEO Bush’s feet:
“COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Some Fort Carson, Colo.-based soldiers have had trouble adjusting to life back in the United States, saying they … were belittled or punished for seeking help. Others say they were ignored by their commanders ….
“Several soldiers said unit discipline deteriorated while in Iraq. … Taxi drivers got shot for no reason, and others were dropped off bridges after interrogations ….
“Soldiers interviewed by The Gazette cited lengthy deployments, being sent back into battle after surviving war injuries that would have been fatal in previous conflicts, and engaging in some of the bloodiest combat in Iraq. …
“Since 2005, some brigade soldiers also have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. …
“Sergeants sometimes refused to let soldiers get PTSD help or taunted them, said Andrew Pogany, a former Fort Carson special forces sergeant who investigates complaints for the advocacy group Veterans for America.
“Soldier John Needham described a number of alleged crimes in a December 2007 letter to the Inspector General’s Office of Fort Carson. In the letter, obtained by The Gazette, Needham said that a sergeant shot a boy riding a bicycle down the street for no reason.
Another sergeant shot a man in the head while questioning him, lashed the man’s body to his Humvee and drove around the neighborhood. Needham also claimed sergeants removed victims’ brains.”
(Quoted from Associated Press under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit: This is the soldiers talking, not peace activists. I hope you rightwing liars now realize that what we said at the time about your recreational war was true.
2 – We won’t see the last of her. People like Palin and Michelle Bachmann speak for the minority that’s “off their nut”. She doesn’t care what level-headed people think of her. The crazies LOVE her.
And the size of that minority is SCARY. It could be as high as 30 percent.
The really scary scenario is that the GOP relies on her to both raise money and scare up voter turnout. If she’s successful it will raise her profile. The downside for the GOPP of course is that they rely on her. We saw how that turned out last November.
I’m counting on her own venality and corruption working to our benefit – that she is indicted and has to serve some time along with her husband. That could backfire as well considering she has a large family – it could rally the nutballs to her side like nothing else.
war based on lie is slippery slope to war based on war.
@5 Considering how much “violent overthrow” and “civil war” talk is emanating from a broad swath of wingnut bleaters, what’s really scary is the total lack of appreciation those people have for what an actual civil war looks like and what it does to a society.
Another thing that wingnut fantasizers about military coups and eliminationist warfare against liberals is that the kill ratio holds pretty steady near 1:1 in all wars. In other words, if they want to fight, they’d better plan on losing one of theirs for every one of ours they kill, because history demonstrates that’s how it works in practice. They don’t seem to comprehend that if their violent fantasies came to fruition there would be piles of dead bodies on both sides.
Can’t wait to have Jay as Governor…
@8 Couldn’t agree with you more! Clearing the 2012 calendar to work tirelessly on his campaign. I was a strong supporter of his in 1996 and was subsequently disgusted with many of the crappy decisions made by Gov. Locke. I suppose the wingnuts would claim that the state would be in great shape if Ellen Craswell had been elected.
Does this mean Congressperson Larson will vote for the damn health care bill now?