Voter Disenfranchisement & 14th Amendment

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Monday March 07, 2011 · 2:24 PM PST

2011/03/07 · 14:24

Once again, as always, Republicans are fighting hard to disenfranchise legitimate voters. Once again, as always, their sole purpose is to reduce the number of voters who are more likely to vote Democratic such as the young and minorities. Let us never forget that the fundemental illegitimacy of Florida 2000 was not the the butterfly ballot, chads or even the egregiously partisan and a-legal supreme court decision, but rather the voter registration purge and non-entry of registrations turned from African-American areas (e.g., voter registration drives at predominently black colleges) before election day.

However, I wonder if the Article 2 of the 14th Amendment might offer some pushback:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

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More about Community Health Centers

DrSteveB

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Tuesday February 15, 2011 · 5:47 PM PST

2011/02/15 · 17:47

Having worked with Community Health Centers as a major part of my day job for the past 16 years, I would like to follow-up on Joan’s front page article Republican budget would end community health center funding.

As Joan notes, expansion of Community Health Centers (CHCs) is a major part of PPACA, so it might seem that these called for cuts by Republicans is just partisan business as usual. But in fact it is quite startling when put into historical context.

Even though they started as lefty idea, were implemented as part of LBJ’s Great Society programs, and were originally out of the Office of Economic Opportunity, CHCs have from the beginning and down through the George W. Bush administration had strong bipartisan support. Indeed one of the few compassionate parts of Bush's original campaign 2000 "compassionate conservatism" that was ever implemented (more or less for real) was a doubling of the number of CHC sites!

Below is more of the CHC story:

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Military & Labor: Why People's Revolutions Succeed?

DrSteveB

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Monday February 14, 2011 · 6:32 AM PST

2011/02/14 · 06:32

Why and when do People's Revolutions succeed. I would argue, that -- for all very real differences between countries, cultures and history -- it really comes down to two factors:

1. Will the military, or other well armed internal security forces, kill large numbers of their own people?

2. Will the working class, actual laboring forces, go on general strike in support of the revolution?

3. A third predictive factor is whether food prices are rising.

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MoJo's Summary of Egypt Opposition Committee of 10

DrSteveB

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Thursday February 03, 2011 · 8:33 AM PST

2011/02/03 · 08:33

I just want to bring to the attention of the dKos community an interesting article on the Mother Jones blog by Jaeah Lee titled "Meet Egypt's Power Brokers".

The title is somewhat misleading insofar as I would suggest that, alas, the leadership of Egypt's military and other security forces are still among the power brokers.

Nevertheless in the midst of the hysterics about Muslim Brotherhood or alternatively the sole focus on Mohamed ElBaradei, it is useful to have a little bit more background on the actual specific individual members of the "officially" designated oppositions' 10-person Negotiation Steering Committee.

DrSteveB

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Tuesday February 01, 2011 · 9:31 AM PST

2011/02/01 · 09:31

There is an interesting bit of hypocrisy on all sides with regard to the arguments being made around Judge Vinson's ruling on the non-severability of the individual mandate from the rest of the regulations around private health insurance in PPACA, and the applicability of commerce clause.

On the one hand, up to know it has indeed been the proponents of PPACA, led by the administration, who have argued that the need for the individual mandate is indeed necessarily tied to other parts of the bill that we like notably the guarantee issue and community rating. So Judge Vinson is in effect just taking the administration at their word with regard to non-severability.

On the other hand, acknowledging this intimate connection is precisely why the PPACA proponents argue that the commerce clause does apply, since a decision by the healthy to not buy insurance would have broad effects economic effects notably on everybody else's premiums. But that would then invalidate Vinson's decision.

DrSteveB

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Monday January 31, 2011 · 3:34 PM PST

2011/01/31 · 15:34

Reagan appointee U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson out of Florida has ruled against PPACA. He ruled against the individual mandate on commerce clause grounds, but as I had predicted, he went further than Judge Hudson out of Virginia and ruled all of PPACA illegal.

Remember: the last thing the insurance companies and Wall Street want is a narrow ruling throwing out just the individual mandate, but leaving in place guarantee issue and community rating. That will not be allowed.

Of course two other Federal judges have ruled that PPACA is legal, and regardless it is going to the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile here is my take:

DrSteveB

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Friday January 28, 2011 · 3:10 PM PST

2011/01/28 · 15:10

By happy happenstance, today's "quote of the day" from PNHP's always must read Don McCanne listserv and feed discussing the subtle Federal push for the high out-of-pocket cost Bronze Plans under PPACA, and today's eAlert from The Commonwealth Fund pointing out that "to control health care costs, focusing only on Federal budget outlays won't solve the problem", have the same message from different approaches:

The real problem with health care costs is the total system costs and the total cost to individuals and families. It is NOT about just the costs to the Federal budget.

DrSteveB

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Saturday January 22, 2011 · 1:59 PM PST

2011/01/22 · 13:59

Throughout 2009 and into early 2010, while the health reform we got nationally was being watered down by the corporate conservadems in the Senate, the Vermont legislature was moving forward. An important step was back in June 2010 when they decided upon the Harvard-MIT analytic group led by Prof. William S. Hsiao (who had done some of the modeling for Taiwan's transition from private insurance to single payer) and Jonathan Gruber (who did some of the modeling for the Obama-Baucus reform we got nationally).

They were charged with providing detailed policy and economic analysis of three possible proposals, two of which was to be variations of single payer. In Vermont, the least progressive proposal was the equivalent of the most progressive that the U.S. House of Representatives considered, being a relatively strong public option while leaving private insurance in place to compete. That was the charge from Vermont legislature, suggesting strong and real support for single payer.

In November, Democrat Peter Shumlin won election for Governor running explicitely on a single payer platform.

DrSteveB

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Tuesday January 18, 2011 · 8:25 AM PST

2011/01/18 · 08:25

It is common, and true in part, to trace the origins of today's Republican Party to the early 1960s, the failure of the intitial Goldwater conservative movement, and the linkage of traditional corporate right with the Southern Strategy of flipping longterm Democratic southern whites to Republicans as a direct result of Civil Rights.

John Judis has a must read piece in today's TNR, that pushes this history (and borrows I suspect from Kim Phillips-Fein's important book Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal) back to the 1930s.

DrSteveB

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Saturday January 15, 2011 · 7:46 AM PST

2011/01/15 · 07:46

This is one way to summarize of the health care reform we got:

At the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference in San Francisco this week, major health insurers outlined the major expansion opportunities they see in the health reform law.

It is a shame that so many reporters who probably essentially get it, have to play dumb, so as to maintain their mainstream credentials. Call it the health care reform version of:

DrSteveB

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Thursday January 13, 2011 · 11:52 AM PST

2011/01/13 · 11:52

Yesterday, I posted part of a talk given by health insurance company whistle blower Wendell Potter, explaining how the corporate PR playbook works.

Today's diary covers the second half of his talk wherein he suggests how the coming attack on health reform (PPACA) is really going to play out.

Hint: It does not involve total repeal, and it definitely does not involve a narrow repeal of just the individual mandate.

DrSteveB

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Wednesday January 12, 2011 · 8:00 AM PST

2011/01/12 · 08:00

The nonsensical false "Job Killing" meme that is part of the attack on the limited health reform we got, is nothing more than the predictable, prescripted, routine PR "playbook" that the nastiest elements of big business always trot out. It is the same attack used against every piece of socially positive legislation, be it second hand smoke, food labeling, sugary drink taxes, etc.

Wendell Potter, the former head of corporate communications for CIGNA, turned whistle blower describes this playbook in the video clip below and in his book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. Mr. Potter has testified to congress, been on Bill Moyers and MSNBC and other media. The Nation cited him as 2010's most valuable author.

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Voter Disenfranchisement & 14th Amendment

More about Community Health Centers

Military & Labor: Why People's Revolutions Succeed?

MoJo's Summary of Egypt Opposition Committee of 10

Severability and Hypocrisy

Quick Reaction to Judge Vinson's Ruling Against PPACA

It is the Total Health Care Costs, Stupid

Vermont Single Payer: What It Is and What You Can Do

The 1930s origins of today's Republican Party

"Shocked, Shocked" Wall Street & AHIP Love Health Reform

Wendell Potter pt 2: The Real Next Attack on Health Reform

Phony "Job Killing" talk is standard Corporate PR Playbook (Wendell Potter, pt 1)