For want of half a million dollars, an uninsured 47-year-old woman’s life may have been lost–Jeanne Sullivan didn’t get onto the liver transplant list immediately because she had neither insurance nor $500,000 spare dollars to cover the costs of the surgery. She couldn’t buy private insurance because of the pre-existing blood clotting disorder that eventually necessitated the transplant.
Jeanne didn’t qualify for public insurance because her partner Tommy, a self-employed contractor, made too much money for Jeanne to qualify for Medicaid. Tommy couldn’t buy private insurance for Jeanne because of the aforementioned pre-existing condition. Her family started fighting for Medicaid coverage long before the final crisis, but even so, the paperwork wasn’t completed by the time Jeanne really needed it.
Jeanne’s sister Ron explains how this lethal Catch-22 made her sister’s last weeks a living hell and may well have killed her.
A happy announcement for this Wednesday morning: my cartoon returns to the Village Voice today.
Didn’t have anything to do with the online petition many of you signed a month or so ago — that was pretty much ignored (though the show of support meant quite a lot to me). It was just an unexpected turn of events, the sort of last minute plot twist that readers would find annoyingly implausible if my life were a novel. Basically, the editor who didn’t like my work was suddenly ousted, and his replacement turned out to be somebody who’s been championing it for years. I had decided the whole thing was a lost cause, and was none too happy about it — and then in a single day everything was realigned.
My head is still spinning.
Anyway, you New Yorkers, tell your friends: time to start picking up the Voice again.
At Harvard Business School, George W. Bush was what they called a “skydecker”—a guy who sat in the top back row of the lecture hall to minimize the risk of being called on. I asked Mitt Romney, another HBS alum, if he had been one, too. “Oh, no,” he assured me, sounding only barely amused by the question. “I wasn’t one of those.” He was the kind of focused fellow who sat down front, well prepared, hand raised. No one was surprised that he became spectacularly successful as a consultant and hedge-fund manager. He loves “wallowing in the data,” as he puts it, applying quantitative methods and a deft managerial touch to knotty problems of business, nonprofit enterprises (the Olympics) and, as former governor of Massachusetts, government. Since when did a taste for data become something to brag about in a race for the Republican presidential nomination? The answer: ever since it became clear, even to most Republicans, that the term “Bush administration” was an oxymoron. A concatenation of crises convinced most of the country that the skydecker in the White House doesn’t know—or much care—about the actual operation of the federal government.
Howard Fineman, Newsweek, Dec. 25, 2000:
Bush is a quick-enough study, and in fact there is a method to his preppy casualness. At Harvard he was what is still known as a sky decker—a student who chooses to sit in the top row of the horseshoe-shaped classroom amphitheater. Sky deckers sat back and listened, taking in the scene, contributing consensus-building observation from on high. Sky deckers also had a better shot at surviving the professors’ legendary “cold calls”—demands for impromptu class presentations…. It suited his methods, and even now he’d much rather learn through briefings than paper.”
Tomdispatch is an fantastic resource. Every single piece it runs is worth reading—serious and in-depth, with information you won’t find in such detail anywhere else. I’d say it’s comparable in quality and importance to the New York Review of Books during Vietnam.
Had to spend some time on a commuter train this weekend, so I loaded up my nifty video iPod (thanks again, M.D!) with some recent shows I hadn’t seen. An episode of Battlestar Galactica which was written by a very talented friend of mine, for one, but BSG is hardly an undiscovered show at this point. Also a few episodes of Jericho, which turned out to be better than I expected — kind of a post-apocalyptic version of Lost, without the supernatural overtones, which are often that show’s weakest point. (Though also without as interesting a supporting cast — no Locke or Hurley in this one.) It’s not brilliant, but it is compelling in an understated way (if you can use the word ‘understated’ about a show whose premise involves the end of the world as we know it). Finally, caught up recently with 30 Rock, a show I initially resisted because I am disinclined to enjoy anything related to Saturday Night Live (due to, let’s just say, personal experience). In this case, my mistake — 30 Rock is the best comedy I’ve seen since Fox deep-sixed Arrested Development. Which means you should probably watch it while you can, because if I like it, it’s probably going to be cancelled at any moment.
This has been your TMW tv moment.
… adding: you are already, of course, watching Heroes, right?
Democrats just as embarrassingly craven as you suspect
I’m working on an article now about what powers Congress has to prevent Bush from attacking Iran. And there’s quite a lot they could do—if they want to. So if we find ourselves at war with Iran, it won’t just be Bush’s responsibility. It will also belong to a Democratic-controlled Congress.
One of the most powerful of Congress’ tools would be to attach a prohibition of such an attack without their approval to an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq. Bush might veto it, but he’d pay a political price for it.
And to Nancy Pelosi’s credit, she at least pretended she wanted to add such language to the House version of the current supplemental. To her enormous discredit, she’s now folding:
Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush’s authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.
Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.
Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy.
Here are the only specific Democrats the article cites:
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said in an interview there is widespread fear in Israel about Iran, which is believed to be seeking nuclear weapons and has expressed unremitting hostility about the Jewish state.
“It would take away perhaps the most important negotiating tool that the U.S. has when it comes to Iran,” she said of the now-abandoned provision.
“I didn’t think it was a very wise idea to take things off the table if you’re trying to get people to modify their behavior and normalize it in a civilized way,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York.
That’s a great argument. Obviously the proposed language wouldn’t “take away” the possibility of the U.S. using force. It would only take away the possibility of Bush using force without Congressional approval. In other words, both Berkley and Ackerman want Iran to believe Bush might attack them even if Congress opposes it.
In this, Berkley and Ackerman are regressing from their votes in 2002 to give Bush authority to attack Iraq. Now they want Bush to be able to attack Iran without even asking their opinion.
The Talking Dog has a fascinating interview with Captain James Yee a Westpoint graduate who served as a Muslim chaplain ministering to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. After 10 months of service at Gitmo, Yee was arrested while traveling back to the United States for a two-week leave. He was accused of espionage, which carries the death penalty. Yee spent 76 days in solitary confinement in the brig in Charlestown, South Carolina. Eventually, all charges against Yee were dropped and he received an honorable discharge. Yee has recently published a book about his experiences: For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire.
Here’s what Yee has to say about the child inmates at Gitmo:
As for the juveniles, there were at least three boys in Camp Iguana between 12 and 14 years old. There were at least 6 others, by the way, who were 15 or 16, definitely younger than 18, in general population. The three in Camp Iguana I met weekly. We were led to believe they were “hard core terrorists” but this was utterly ridiculous. The guards in charge of them would frequently discipline them with “time-outs” just as many American parents discipline their own children.
I spent a fair amount of time with the youngsters; they learned to throw footballs, and I watched them kick soccer balls- occasionally over the fence and into the ocean. These kids were not the hard-core super-terrorists capable of slitting anyone’s throat, as we were led to believe, and as portrayed by our military and governmental officials. Nevertheless, it was no fun and games for these pre-teens boys. They were subjected to harsh interrogations just like the other prisoners. Several of these interrogations were taking place when I would come visit and thereby prevent me from accessing Camp Iguana.
Yee has much more to say about the deteriorating conditions he observed at GMTO, abuse of the Koran, harsh investigation techniques, and his own ordeal at the hands of the US government.
