I've been trying to keep up with the debates here, in the midst of selling my family house and taking a trip to North Dakota to do a survey on the Standing Rock Reservation (more on that in another diary later).
I don't know if anyone has been diarying this, but in some parts of the country the airwaves are absolutely saturated with health insurance industry ads that are nothing but LIES and MISINFORMATION meant to scare people to death. This shilling for the health insurance industry is being done out here by a number of different groups, including the Club for Growth, whose reputation preceeds it, and a number of others that seem to be fronts for the insurance industry.
I have been particularly offended by the blatent lies by another established organization called the Independent Women's Forum. Its ads are very frequent and just blatant lies.
The featured video on that organization's website is subtitled "experts say tens of millions could lose their current health insurance." That should show you the road they're taking.
It seems that this organization has infuriated bloggers before. Feministing has run a number of articles on this group, which is anti-feminist. Check their wiki description here.
Here's the history of the organization according to SourceWatch:
Founded by Rosalie Gaull (Ricky) Silberman in 1992, the IWF grew out of the ad hoc group, Women for Judge Thomas.
While claiming to challenge "radical feminists," IWF primarily targets mainstream feminists and feminist organizations, as exemplified by such figures as Hillary Rodham Clinton and such groups as the American Association of University Women.
IWF is a secular counterpart to Religious Right women's groups like Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America, but these groups often work together. People for the American Way describe IWF as a group that "opposes affirmative action, gender equity programs like Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act."
IWF members include academic women who are paid to write papers that denigrate the idea of equity for girls and women in education. One of these papers,[1] by Judith Kleinfeld, a professor of psychology at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, has questioned an MIT study[5] on discrimination against women in MIT's science department, calling their findings "junk science."
IWF's constantly-updated web site shows an ever expanding sphere of concerns, all viewed from right-wing perspectives.
In October 2004 the Feminist Majority Foundation has objected to the U.S. Department of State's decision to award part of a $10 million grant to IWF for "leadership training, democracy education and coalition building assistance" to women in Iraq. The funding was from the Iraqi Women's Democracy Initiative.[6]. IWF will be working in Iraq with the American Islamic Conference and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank with neoconservative ties.
I feel like confronting these vile people but I know we can't get through to people who are already bought and paid for by what is basically the oligarchy. I thought of 2 things we can do though. Number 1, we can inundate its site with our own stories about the horrors of the current insurance system. My personal experience with my mother was that she got much better care after we switched from a Medicare HMO called HIP, which is so bad the best doctors won't accept it anymore, back to straight Medicare with an AARP medigap policy. What is your story? Let them know the straight story on THEIR website.
The only other thing I can think of is turning them in to the IRS, since as a 502 c(3) (aka public charity), they can only devote so much time and so many resources to lobbying and other efforts to affect legislation. If you check their tax returns over at Guidestar, I am sure you'll see they're way over their limit.
I have been very impressed out here by the absolute assault by the insurance industry and its mouthpieces. We have to stay firm in our resolve and continue our efforts to get the backs of our Congress people who stand up to these assaults. Obviously, the industry feels threatened and has pulled out all stops. The Town Hall assaults are just one component. Now we have a very active group of women-hating women involved as well. I have been infuriated at all of this. Going to a red state has shaken me up again. Independent my ass.