Gimme Back My Dog

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.

Freakin' finally.

Lies and Lying Liars was a HUGE influence on my early political activism and a definite catalyst in the creation of this blog.

The Senate just go a whole lot more fun.

Minnesota Supreme Court affirms: Franken won US Senate seat:

"It’s finally prime time for former Saturday Night Live writer Al Franken.

The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed early Tuesday afternoon that Franken won the state’s senate seat from former Republican Senator Norm Coleman in a razor-thin election."

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Nothing more I can add other than to reiterate 'FUCKING D'UH'.

OK, I can add a bit more.

100% of the Republicans and a good 60-70% of Democrats are so deep in the pockets of Big-Pharma they can't see straight enough to make a cogent argument against the Public Plan.

Open Left:: The Problem With The Public Option Is That It Lowers The Cost Of Health Insurance:

"The main goal of health care reform is to lower the cost of health insurance. Apropos, Olympia Snowe thinks that the problem with a public health insurance option is that a public option would... wait for it... lower the cost of health insurance:

In an Associated Press interview in Portland, Snowe said it would be unfair to include a government-run health insurance option that would take effect immediately.

'If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market ... the public option will have significant price advantages,' she said.

Well, duh. That is the whole point. You can't lower the price of health insurance unless you start offering lower-priced health insurance. It's a tautology."

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And there is no 'medical free market' to save, here, folks. It is a goddamn myth.

Free market health care competition simply doesn't exist.

Time to bust them up.

This Is Why Insurance Companies Fear The Public Option(Updated)

Over the last 13 years there have been 400 mergers of health insurance companies. This means there are now at least 200 less companies offering insurance than there were in 1996. Less competition means less pressure to keep costs down.

This is why the big companies are so freaked out by the idea of the public option. They can not buy out a government competitor. Since a public option will not be for profit with shareholders who will take a very sweet deal to leave a market, they will not be able to use their deep pockets to buy market share. Worse from their point of view, they will not be able to collude with a public plan to keep rates artificially high, under the premise everyone wins, well everyone except the consumer who only needs health care to stay alive and healthy and happy.

The argument has been pitched the Insurance companies are afraid for their existence if there is a public option, and long term the Dog thinks that is true, but it is really all about short term returns the Insurance companies are worried about. The profits they have been able to reap through consolidation have been enourmous. Between 2000 and 2007 the top ten publically traded insurance companies saw profits increase 428%! Let that sink in, in a little over seven years they saw a 428% increase in profit, all the while passing on double digit increases in premiums to their customers!

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Is it any wonder that an economy left in the hands of Repubs is sure to implode.

And, porn, I might add, is probably one of the few industries that's propping up our shitty economy at the moment.

You take away the porn market and we're looking like Somalia.

Oklahoma Rep’s ‘proclamation’ blames gays, porn, abortion for economic woes:

"Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern, probably best known for her comparison of homosexuality to toe cancer, has ignited controversy once again with her “Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality,” a document that blames America’s current economic crisis on “our greater national moral crisis.”

The document (PDF) blames “abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse and many other forms of debauchery” for the country’s economic woes."

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West Side Rulz!

Oregon legalizes hemp cultivation:

"Oregon’s House of Representatives voted Monday night to legalize the cultivation of hemp, becoming the sixth state to do so just this year.

Oregon’s Senate voted 27 to 2 in favor of the new law last week. Monday’s 46 to 11 House vote means that the measure will become law, barring an unlikely veto by Governor Ted Kulongoski."

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Gimme back my dog?

Worst Slobberbone reference ever.

Man allegedly demands sex to return lost dog:

"Los Angeles County prosecutors allege that a convicted sex offender tried to extort a teenager by demanding cash or sex for the return of her lost dog."

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