corruption

Imagine that, Doctors who own for profit surgery centers, perform twice as many "surgeries" as those who do not

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Ever go to a Doctor and feel you are being sold and peddled expensive services, procedures and drugs even to the point of a bogus diagnosis? Well, a new study validates what you perceived.

 

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When doctors become invested in an outpatient surgery center, they perform on average twice as many surgeries as doctors with no such financial stake, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Health System.

Massachusetts turned Red, but that color isn't what you think it is

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Massachusetts, the most liberal of liberal states, just elected a Republican, Scott Brown, to the U.S. Senate. What the hell just happened? People are Red Faced Pissed Off is what happened!

This commentary, Dear Politicians: We are Fed up says it best:

We are fed up with the lot of you.

You promised to change the way Washington works, but you didn't do it. Your answers to our problems are inadequate, or they make things worse. As usual, you're taking care of everyone but us. Despite the worst economic crisis in generations, nothing has changed.

Strange Bedfellows.

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At the risk of weekly over exposure to the blog Firedoglake, I really feel that this post, Jane Hamsher and Grover Norquist Call For Rahm Emanuel's Resignation, deserves special attention. I can think of few people in the blogosphere or elsewhere who are more liberal than Jane Hamsher. On the other hand, Grover Norquist has been the leader of "movement conservativism" for more than 2 decades. So, anything that they might do jointly deserves a second look.

Bank Bail Outs Proved to be "inside job"

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What a surprise, it's not what you know, but who you know especially if you want billions in free money to cover your screw up.

A new study from University of Michigan Professors Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura found that the financial institutions who has the strongest political "ties" received the largest bail outs.

Duchin and Sosyura focused on the Capital Purchase Program, the largest TARP initiative in terms of the number of participants and the amount of expended capital. As of late September, nearly 700 financial institutions had received about $205 billion under the program.

The Christmas Gifts to pass "Health Care Reform"

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Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle bell rock. The Senate is hot, they know to say not, giveaway, giveaway lobbyists galore, buyouts and paybacks, we know the score...

There are many reports tallying the winners and losers on health care. Of course it's a given that the American people will lose...

The consensus seems to be big pharma won big as did insurance companies.

Firedoglake (they are not always on top of their economics, trust me!) gives 10 reasons to kill the Senate bill, which I find rather scary.

  1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not.

The Senate - Where Lobbyists can guarantee anything in the national interest will die

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We've just seen health care turn into the for profit health lobbyists' wet dream and now here comes the financial lobbyists (as if the House bill wasn't a bunch of swiss cheese already).

The American Bankers Association issued a "Call to Action" on Wednesday, urging its lobbyists and member banks to make an all-out effort to crush regulatory reform in Senate. As part of that campaign, it lashed out at its community-bank rival, charging it with being too soft on bank reform efforts.

In an unusually frank memo from ABA Chairman Art Johnson, the lobby group congratulates bankers for sending some 300,000 letters to Congress opposing reform, crediting the effort with killing several significant provisions.

Busted! The New York Times Verifies Lawmaker's Speeches Written by Lobbyists

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The New York Times has gotten hold of emails proving speeches are written by corporate lobbyists. Now if they would only expose how many bills are as well.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Personally I've know this for some time. The public relations techniques of lobbyists are notorious. There are so many lobbyist press kits and white papers, it must look like snow.

Big Pharma to make billions, thanks Obama and Congress!

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No, you did not enter a time warp and read about President Bush and the Republicans passing a corrupt prescription drug bill written by lobbyists. Yes, it's 2009. You ready for this?

Pharma Deal With White House On Course To Net Industry Billions:

The deal struck between the pharmaceutical lobby, the White House and Senate Democrats has drastically improved Big Pharma's expected profits, a private industry report finds.

IMS Health, a company that supplies the pharmaceutical companies with sales data, predicts that new health reform legislation -- combined with a projected upswing in the economy and other changes in the pharmaceutical industry -- will result in a net gain of more than $137 billion in total market sales over the next four years.

Read the entire Huffington Post article for the response from PHrMA, the pharmaceutical lobbyist group.

Ouch! Alternet Asks the Question - Is Obama's Chief Economic Adviser Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks?

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I don't like this story. Not a bit and it's making the rounds as a bombshell. Alternet is asking the question Is Larry Summers Taking Kickbacks From the Banks He's Bailing Out?:

Last month, a little-known company where Summers served on the board of directors received a $42 million investment from a group of investors, including three banks that Summers, Obama’s effective “economy czar,” has been doling out billions in bailout money to: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. The banks invested into the small start-up company, Revolution Money, right at the time when Summers was administering the “stress test” to these same banks.

Stevens Guilty on 7 Counts

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Stevens Guilty of Taking $250k in Gifts:

U.S. Senator Ted Stevens was convicted of all seven felony charges of failing to report gifts from a company in his home state of Alaska, a possibly fatal blow to the career of the Senate's longest-serving Republican.

Stevens, 84, was convicted in Washington of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. He was accused of hiding more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from Veco Corp., an Alaska oil-services company, Bill Allen, the company's founder, and other friends

So, the 84 year old Bridge to Nowhere Senator is goin' down...
what about all of the legal payola on the hill? What about the corporate lobbyists running the country?

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