ACORN, Health Care, and Orly Taitz

i started off the morning with an extremely interesting debate with a friend. he was wondering about, or more to the point, accusing the mainstream media (MSM) of refusing to cover the latest ACORN scandal. my response? there was more important news yesterday. his response? the liberal media had an agenda to keep ACORN quiet.

while i agree that liberal, conservative, and so-called neutral media outlets all have an agenda (they are almost all financed by corporate america), i do not agree there was a conspiratorial agenda to keep ACORN out of the news. i assured him it would receive more coverage, probably today, and sent him to several links (CBS, NPR, and the White House daily briefing) to show the evolving coverage just since yesterday.

here's the NYT coverage of the ACORN scandal, and here's jon stewart last night.

as the day went on, my twitterfeed didn't didn't reveal an abundance of news to share, but here are a few stories that may be of interest:

• a doctor shares an argument on why the single payer option should be considered for healthcare reform. Read it here.

for those who don't understand single payer, this is quite simply, Medicare for All. it eliminates private insurers for health care and has the government paying all bills. on this plan, you could choose any doctor you wanted, because all doctors would be "in network." after all, there would be only one network - Medicare. no insurance company could ever drop you and you would never max out on benefits.

there are lots of reasons this is a good plan, but it is not really under discussion. it doesn't appear in any of the bills under review in the house or senate. all arguments about a government take over of healthcare are false, since no one is proposing any legislation with single payer in it. still, lots of doctors and some congress people are fighting for it anyway and this post is a good example of that voice. by the way, Anthony Weiner, congressman from NY, is a big advocate for single payer. see my post with several videos of him here.

for more on healthcare reform basics, see my 101 list. i do need to update it, but that'll get you started if you're a complete newbie.

• max baucus finally releases his version of the Gang of Six health care bill (this is a committee of 6 senators (3 Dems/3 Repubs) who worked on the bill). supposedly it tracks with the POTUS principles for reform, but apparently no one, Dem or Reb actually likes the bill. no one, that is, but max. analysis here. short video on why his bill is a bad one here. this video features Wendell Potter, former executive of insurance giant Cigna, and whistleblower extraordinaire!

• just for fun, a song/video about the U.S. being ranked #37 in the world in health care.

• lastly, queen of the birthers, orly taitz (skewered on the daily show), gets slammed by a judge who dismisses her latest complaint as frivolous. for those unclear about birthers, they are people who believe Barack Obama is not the rightful POTUS b/c he was supposedly not born in the U.S. many things that make claim ludicrous, but i won't discuss them now. the taitz article, on Talking Points Memo, is here.

ttfn!