BartBlog

Excerpt:
Last month Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint, got national media attention and the attention of congress by announcing a 39% rate increase in health care premiums in California. According to Steve Lewis, employed at the world’s third largest health care insurance brokerage, employers and individuals across the nation can expect similar rate increases in the near future, regardless of whether or not health care reform is passed in congress.

In a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, Steve Lewis, a highly regarded broker at Willis, painted a picture of the health insurance market in which many employers and individuals seem likely to be priced out of coverage. Noting that “price competition” between insurers was “down from a year ago,” Lewis relayed that “incumbent carriers seem more willing than ever to walk away from existing business.” Insurers are able to do this in part because the markets in which they operate have no adequate competition, suggests Lewis.

According to Sam Stein, writing for the Huffington Post, “The phenomenon of insurers pricing their policies beyond where consumers can afford it seems to be already taking place.” That is reflected in a transcript of a conference call within Aetna last October explicitly revealing plans by their executives to “price-out” over 600,000 Americans from health care coverage.

Meanwhile, President Obama spent the afternoon in back-to-back private sessions with two separate groups of legislators that are uncomfortable with the bill because it lacks a public option that could compete in the free market with private insurance companies and drives insurance down. A non-profit government plan would operate solely off its members’ premiums. His response to them was that a public option would never pass the Senate, but said he would be “personally committed” to pursuing it once the current bill became law, said Representative Raúl Grijalva to the New York Times, Democrat of Arizona and co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

No matter where one stands politically on the health care reform issue, the economic implications should be a no-brainer. Anyone who understands the concept of a free market should also understand that costs are kept down by competition. Anyone who understands how insurance works should also understand that the more clients a provider has, the less that each individual enrollee in the plan will have to pay in.

A health care reform bill without a public option will do little to curb rate increases. No reform bill will do nothing at all.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m3d5-Health-insurance-rate-increases-imminent-with-or-without-reform-bill

Is the 9/11 truth movement gaining ground?

Excerpt:
The 9/11 truth movement, comprised of various professional and grassroots organizations such as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth, We are Change, Patriots Question 9/11 and victims families like the Jersey Girls have made one thing clear in recent months: they are not going to fall into the memory hole of history.

Last month, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth held a press conference at the Mariner’s Club & Hotel in San Francisco, CA, USA. The organization announced that they have received more than 1,000 signatures from architects and engineers around the world demanding a new, truly independent investigation of the facts regarding the events of Sept. 11, 2001, saying that the conclusions drawn by the 911 Commission reek of cover-up and are not supported by facts.

The newsworthy item here is not that 70 million Americans are questioning the official story of 9/11, or that it may be a conspiracy theory, or that people involved in the 9/11 commission report such as Bob Kerry have publically stated that “it is a 30 year old conspiracy.” What is newsworthy is simply that the movement is now getting some coverage in the mainstream media in the U.S., and relatively more coverage in European media.

While the 9/11 truth movement does not make any claims regarding theories as to what really happened that day, the various organizations that comprise the movement do call for a new, independent investigation. So, who would do that?

One thing for certain is that it will not be the corporate media. The “big” stories are distractions such as Tiger Wood’s affair, Sen. Bunning’s filibuster, or anything that pops up like a balloon boy or a Fruit of the Boom bomber. Never mind that at least 10 eyewitnesses that may have pertinent information as to what really happened on 9/11 have mysteriously died, including:

• Barry Jennings, former New York housing authority emergency coordinator, who reported that he had been blown back big explosions in WTC 7, claimed to have stepped over bodies on his way out of the building.
• Beverly Eckert, who lost her husband on 9/11 and did not believe the official story. She declined monetary compensation from the U.S. government for her loss and instead filed a lawsuit against the U.S. and Saudi governments. She died in a commuter plane crash in Buffalo, NY on Feb. 19th, 2009, a week after meeting with President Obama.
• Kenneth Johannemann, a janitor in WTC 1 who reported hearing massive explosions in the basement of the towers and rescuing someone from the basement who had massive full body burns.
• Bertha Champagne, babysitter for Marvin Bush’s family. Marvin Bush was the director of Securacom/Stratesec in the months before 9/11, the Saudi and Kuwaiti-financed company that provided security for the WTC complex and Dulles international airport where Flight 77 took off from. On Oct. 10th, 2003, Bertha was found crushed to death by her own vehicle in front of the Bush family home.
• Deborah Palfrey, the infamous “D.C. madam” who claimed her call girls were chaufferred to poker parties hosted by Porter Goss, former CIA director and co-chair of the joint 9/11 intelligence inquiry. On the morning of 9/11, Goss was reported to have had breakfast with Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, head of Pakistan’s ISI, who was reported to have wired $100K to the alleged lead hijacker, Mohammed Atta. Deborah allegedly committed suicide after saying she would not do that on a nationally syndicated radio show.

Nearly every piece of big-spending and/or freedom-taking legislation, including two wars, FICA, the PATRIOT Act and almost everything that has brought this country to the brink of collapse has been justified as a response to what happened on 9/11. Perhaps even the media realizes that it is time for the American people to know the truth. If all that takes is a real independent investigation, then let’s have one.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m3d3-911-truth-movement-keeps-moving-along

There are a shitload of links in the article above. I don’t touch this stuff without hardcore documentation…