Pandora's Box

This post reminds me of a great sketch by the immortal Bill Hicks. Take a listen to the truth he spouts from days of old and think about days to come. Capitalism has become the business of death, so what does this say about the ideology? Is this something that can be accepted in a civilized society? Is this something that YOU would expect from Terrorists or mass murderers? Why don't we call it like it is, marketing death. Is this the American Dream or Nightmare. To attain wealth from the injury or death of another is one of the reasons I could not do my job in insurance when I was in those shoes. Many people thrive on strife and gladly prostitute themselves so that they can "go along, to get along." This seems to be the same group that says that the American Republic has been replaced by a Democracy which has led us to Despotism under "W." This is just a rant that I hope will encourage people to learn about history and our fleeting GOD give inalienable civil rights while some still exist.

So turn off the tube and turn on your mind, it is the most powerful tool that you will ever have.

Iran inaugurates nation's first unmanned bomber

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Nasser Karimi, Associated Press Writer – Sun Aug 22, 7:14 pm ET

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies.

The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel.

"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship," said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the country's national day for its defense industries.

The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar or striker, is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the aircraft is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo and now produces its own tanks, armored personnel carries, missiles and even a fighter plane.

Iran frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.

State TV later showed video footage of the plane taking off from a launching pad and reported that the craft traveled at speeds of 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound (113.4-kilogram) bombs or a 450-pound (204.12-kilogram) guided bomb.

Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s.

The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program.

Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.

Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table."

Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the U.S. and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems.

RE: MICHAEL MOORE ON KEITH OLBERMANN $ Save Net Radio !!!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Dalibor
Date: Jul 13, 2007 8:05 PM


MICHAEL MOORE ON KEITH OLBERMANN JULY 12, 2007

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Keith (enemy combatant for peace)
Date: Jul 13, 2007 11:31 AM


Watched it live last night, Michael was on top of it, thanks DJLenaDOTcom


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Love Cursed
Date: Jul 13, 2007 4:31 PM


thanks to psychocandy for the update..

looks like it worked for now, but how ridiculous. check this link:
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2007/07/webcasters_face_music

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Love Cursed
Date: Jul 13, 2007 3:57 AM


repost~ please get involved. save net radio!



/>----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Mark Marshall
Date: Jul 13, 2007 1:49 AM


This came from our friends at savenetradio.org. This is NOT an alarmist post - upwards of TWENTY THOUSAND netradio stations could be closed as soon as NEXT WEEK if this isn't stopped - PLEASE REPOST.
MM.


for more background info on the story, you can read Idiots killed the radio star (opens in a new window)


Greetings,

Time and options are running out for Internet Radio. Late this afternoon, the court DENIED the emergency stay sought on behalf of webcasters, millions of listeners and the artists and music they support.

UNLESS CONGRESS ACTS BY JULY 15th, the new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Sunday, threatening the future of all internet radio.

We are appealing to the millions of Internet radio listeners out there, the webcasters they support and the artists and labels we treasure to rise up and make your voices heard again before this vibrant medium is silenced. Even if you have already called, we need you to call again.

The situation is grave, but that makes the message all the simpler and more serious.

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES RIGHT AWAY and urge them to support the Internet Equality Act. Go to http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html to find the phone numbers of your Senators and Representative.

If they've already co-sponsored, thank them and tell them to fight to bring the bill to the floor for an immediate vote. If the line is busy, please call back. Call until you know your voice has been heard.

Your voices are what have gotten us this far - Congress has listened. Now, they are our only hope.

We are outmatched by lobbying power and money but we are NOT outmatched by facts and passion and the power of our voices.

Again, please go to http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html to find the necessary phone numbers and make the call today.

Thank you,

The SaveNetRadio Campaign
www.savenetradio.org

To repost, just hit reply to poster below, then copy the code and paste it into your own bulletin.

RE: Michael Moore Rips Wolf Blitzer a new one!!! (video)

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Precarious333
Date: Jul 10, 2007 5:58 PM


Love it! Love it! LOVE IT!

Eat it, Blitzer!


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Impeach GeOgre/ 9.11 Truth
Date: Jul 10, 2007 4:14 PM


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Sunrise Projector (Child of the Revolution)
Date: Jul 10, 2007 1:00 PM


Michael Moore Rips Wolf Blitzer/CNN





http://youtube.com/watch?v=n9sbHIfX7tk

RE: So how does M Moore feel about you downloading Sicko?

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: PARI$ HILTON IS NOT NEWSWORTHY
Date: Jun 30, 2007 2:29 PM


So how does M Moore feel about you downloading Sicko?

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Vivid Imagination
Date: Jun 30, 2007 10:44 AM


Thanks to all
R4ND0mLI9HT
Keith (enemy combatant for peace)
civitron



So, on that note...

Sicko (2007)

Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore aims his camera at the diseased American health care industry for his latest documentary. Most Americans have health insurance, and they think that means they're covered. But this documentary is here to ruin your day. When you finish watching it, you'll understand what a massive scam the insurance industry really is and how your future is in their hands. In other words, it's more terrifying than any horror movie — and the most important American film of 2007.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

RE: So how does M Moore feel about you downloading Sicko?

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: PARI$ HILTON IS NOT NEWSWORTHY
Date: Jun 30, 2007 2:29 PM


So how does M Moore feel about you downloading Sicko?

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Vivid Imagination
Date: Jun 30, 2007 10:44 AM


Thanks to all
R4ND0mLI9HT
Keith (enemy combatant for peace)
civitron



So, on that note...

Sicko (2007)

Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore aims his camera at the diseased American health care industry for his latest documentary. Most Americans have health insurance, and they think that means they're covered. But this documentary is here to ruin your day. When you finish watching it, you'll understand what a massive scam the insurance industry really is and how your future is in their hands. In other words, it's more terrifying than any horror movie — and the most important American film of 2007.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

RE: the indians were not savages...

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Shane (Infoseekr)
Date: Jun 10, 2007 4:00 PM


cute video w/points... but propaganda as well... its implying we need to round up guns, or anyone w/ a gun is a fanatic.... and gun grabbers are bad news (mike moore , rosie o'donnel, oprah, dennis kuchinch, most left wing communist like the clintons are all gun grabbers)... in no way does that mean Im an NRA fanatic or KKK supporter. but it certainly is useful to ed and elaine brown at the moment protecting themselves from federal tyranny.

also the indians were not savages... read a peoples history of the united states (howard zinn)... the indians greeted Chris Columbus with gifts and food. the indians had an elaborate system of self governance, moral law, tribal structure, and agriculture.

this cute lil video is a no-brainer gun grabbin propaganda stint in sheeps clothing... agreed its cute and has a couple points... and hard to spot as Bullshit... but it is.

Shane

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Bryan-Redfoot
Date: Jun 10, 2007 12:38 PM

RE: Michael Moore wants to hear from you!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Jun 8, 2007 3:43 PM


Michael Moore wants to hear from you!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Anthony (Namaste)
Date: Jun 8, 2007 3:33 PM

RE: Michael Moore on Oprah

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Tony
Date: Jun 6, 2007 3:19 AM


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: MICHAEL MOORE
Date: Jun 6, 2007 12:06 AM



PART 1:


PART 2:

RE: Intelligent Minds & Explosing Corruption Of Our Corporates

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Galactic Angel
Date: Jun 6, 2007 1:27 PM


Love & Light Too
Dalibor
Date: Jun 5, 2007 4:27 PM


Michael Moore is the real HERO in USA !!!


Castro and Chavez have a better system then USA
the richest country on the planet!


It is ALL UP TO YOU NOW !!!

RE: Sicko? The Truth About the US Healthcare System

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Elsewhere's Daughter
Date: Jun 5, 2007 10:11 AM




Cynthia Kline knew exactly what was happening to her when she suffered a heart attack at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She took the time to call an ambulance, popped some nitroglycerin tablets she had been prescribed in anticipation of just such an emergency, and waited for help to arrive.

0604 03 1 2On paper, everything should have gone fine. Unlike tens of millions of Americans, she had health insurance coverage. The ambulance team arrived promptly. The hospital where she had been receiving treatment for her cardiac problems, a private teaching facility affiliated with the Harvard Medical School, was just a few minutes away.

The problem was, the casualty department at the hospital, Mount Auburn, was full to overflowing. And it turned her away. The ambulance took her to another nearby hospital but the treatment she needed, an emergency catheterization, was not available there. A flurry of phone calls to other medical facilities in the Boston area came up empty. With a few hours, Cynthia Kline was dead.

She died in an American city with one of the highest concentration of top-flight medical specialists in the world. And it happened largely because of America’s broken health care system - one where 50 million people are entirely without insurance coverage and tens of millions more struggle to have the treatment they need approved. As a result, medical problems go unattended until they reach crisis point. Patients then rush to hospital casualty departments, where by law they cannot be turned away, overwhelming the system entirely. Everyone - doctors and patients, politicians on both the left and the right - agrees this is an insane way to run a health system.

When Elizabeth Hilsabeck gave birth to premature twins in Austin, Texas, she encountered another kind of insanity. Again, she was insured — through her husband, who had a good job in banking. But the twins were born when she was barely six months pregnant, and the boy, Parker, developed cerebral palsy. The doctors recommended physical therapy to build up muscle strength and give the boy a fighting chance of learning to walk, but her managed health provider refused to cover it.

The crazy bureaucratic logic was that the policy covered only “rehabilitative” therapy - in other words, teaching a patient a physical skill that has been lost. Since Parker had never walked, the therapy was in essence teaching him a new skill and therefore did not qualify. The Hilsabecks railed, protested, won some small reprieves, but ended up selling their home and moving into a trailer to cover their costs. Elizabeth’s husband, Steven, considered taking a new, better-paying job, but chose not to after making careful inquiries about the health insurance coverage. “When is he getting over the cerebral palsy?” a prospective new insurance company representative breezily asked the Hilsabecks. When Elizabeth explained he would never get over it, she was told she was on her own.

Everyone in America has a health-care horror story or knows someone who does. Mostly they are stories of grinding bureaucratic frustration, of phone calls and officials letters and problems with their credit rating, or of people ignoring a slowly deteriorating medical condition because they are afraid that an expensive battery of tests will lead to a course of treatment that could quickly become unaffordable.

Even when things don’t go horribly wrong, it is a matter of surviving by the skin of one’s teeth.

In Montana, Melissa Anderson can’t find affordable insurance because she is self-employed - an increasingly common affliction. When her son Kasey came down with epilepsy two years ago, she was saved only by a recently introduced child health insurance programme specifically tailored to people who aren’t poor but can’t afford to pay monster medical bills. She herself remains uninsured for anything short of major care needs.

Over the past 15 years, the stories have become less about poor people without the economic means to access the system - although that remains a vast, unsolved problem - and more about the kind of people who have every expectation they will be taken care of. Middle-class people, people with jobs that carry health benefits or - as the problem worsens - people with the sorts of jobs that used to carry robust health benefits which are now more rudimentary and risk their being cut off for a variety of reasons.

This is the morass that Michael Moore has chosen to explore in his latest documentary, Sicko, which goes on release later this month. Moore spends much of the film demonstrating that there is nothing inevitable or necessary about a system that enriches insurance companies and drug manufacturers but shortchanges absolutely everyone else. His searching documentary looks at health care in France, Britain, Canada, and even Cuba - still regarded as a model system for the Third World.

Moore has his share of ghoulishly awful stories. The film kicks off with an uninsured carpenter who has to decide whether to spend $12,000 (£6,000) reattaching his severed ring finger or $60,000 to reattach his severed middle finger. Later on, Moore focuses on a hospital worker whose husband needed a bone marrow transplant to save him from a rare disease. The couple’s insurance company refused to cover the transplant because it regarded the treatment as “experimental”. The husband died.

Many more stories are collected in a newly published book called Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis, by Jonathan Cohn. A woman in California called Nelene Fox died of breast cancer after she, too, was turned down for a bone marrow transplant by her insurance company. In Georgia, a family whose infant son went into cardiac arrest were forced to take him to a hospital 45 miles away on their insurance carrier’s orders. He survived, but suffered permanent disabilities that more prompt treatment might have averted. In New York, an infant called Bryan Jones - whose case was trumpeted all over the local media at the time - died of a heart defect that went undetected because his insurance company kicked him and his mother out of hospital 24 hours after his birth, too soon to carry out the tests that might have spotted the problem.

America’s health system offers a tremendous paradox. In medical technology and in the scientific understanding of disease, it is second-to-none. Since doctors are better paid than anywhere else in the world, the country attracts the best of the best. And yet many, if not most, Americans are unable to reap the advantages of this. In fact, as The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has argued, the very proliferation of research and high-tech equipment is part of the reason for the imbalance in coverage between the privileged few and the increasingly underserved masses. “[The system] compensates for higher spending on insiders, in party, by consigning more people to outsider status –robbing Peter of basic care in order to pay for Paul’s state-of-the-art treatment,” Krugman wrote recently. “Thus we have the cruel paradox that medical progress is bad for many Americans’ health.”

Having the system run by for-profit insurance companies turns out to be inefficient and expensive as well as dehumanising. America spends more than twice as much per capita on health care as France, and almost two and a half times as much as Britain. And yet it falls down in almost every key indicator of public health, starting, perhaps, most shockingly, with infant mortality, which is 36 per cent higher than in Britain.

A recent survey by the management consulting company McKinsey estimated the excess bureaucratic costs of managing private insurance policies - scouting for business, processing claims, and hiring “denial management specialists” to tell people why their ailment is not covered by their policy - at about $98bn a year. That, on its own, is significantly more than the $77bn McKinsey calculates it would cost to cover every uninsured American. If the government negotiated bulk purchasing rates for drugs, rather than allowing the pharmaceutical companies to set their own extortionate rates, that would save another $66bn.

Astonishingly, there hasn’t been a serious debate about health care in the United States since Bill Clinton, with considerable input from his wife Hillary, tried and failed to overhaul the system in 1994. That, though, may be about to change as the 2008 presidential race heats up. Everyone acknowledges the system is broken. Everyone recognizes that 50 million uninsured - including almost 10 million children - is unacceptable in a civilized society.

Even the old, classically American free-market argument - that “socialized” medicine is somehow the first step on a slippery slope towards godless communism - doesn’t hold water, because in the absence of a functioning private insurance regime the government ends up picking up about 50 per cent of the overall costs for treatment anyway. The indigent rely on a government program called Medicaid. The elderly have a government program called Medicare. And perhaps the most efficient part of the whole system is the Veterans’ Administration, a sort of NHS for former servicemen.

Rather like London and Paris in the 19th century, where the authorities belatedly paid attention to outbreaks of cholera once the disease started affecting the rich and middle classes, so the American health crisis may be coming to a head because of the kinds of people who are suffering from its injustices.

Corporate chief executives, for a start, are gagging under the ever-increasing costs of providing coverage to their employees. Starbucks now spends more on health care than it does on coffee beans. Company health costs, as a whole, are at about the same level as corporate profits. In a globalized world where US businesses are competing with low-wage countries such as India and China, that is rapidly becoming unacceptable.

That explains, perhaps, why the chief executive of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, has made common cause with America’s leading service sector union - more commonly a bitter critic of Wal-Mart’s labour practices - in calling for a government-run universal health care system by 2012. It’s going to be a tough battle. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries bankroll the campaigns of dozens of congressmen and have so far been brutally efficient in protecting their own interests. The Clintons were defeated in 1994 in part because of the power of the industry lobbies. Doing better this time will take singular political courage.

In the meantime, we will hear ever more crazy stories like the one told by Marijon Binder, a former nun in Chicago who ended up being sued by a Catholic hospital for $11,000 because her two-night stay for a heart scare was not considered a worthy charity case. Binder, who works as a live-in companion to a disabled old woman, wrote on all her admission forms that she had no insurance and, in her telling at least, was reassured the hospital would take care of her anyway.

After a year and a monstrous bureaucratic fight that went nowhere, a civil judge promptly absolved her of responsibility for her bill - a lucky outcome, for sure. Binder said: “The whole experience was very demeaning. It made me feel very guilty; it made me feel like a criminal.” She is, though, alive and solvent. Not everyone in this system catches the same break.