When politicians and activists need a villain, facts aren't at the top of the list of things are concerned about. So it really shouldn't come as a surprise that health insurance companies aren't exactly the profit machines liberals have made them out to be.

According to this AP Factcheck story, health insurance companies had a 2.2% profit margin on average which puts them in 35th place on Fortune's top 500 industries. By comparison, railroads return a 12.6% profit margin. Somehow Free Rail Shipping for Everyone! hasn't become a political hot button.

In other health care news...Medicare, which is supposed to be the shining example of how the government can run health care better than anyone is ripped off of about $60 BILLION a year in fraud.

How can that be? There's a simple explanation according to this 60 Minutes interview with Medicare Director Kim Brandt.

Well, it really does come down to the size and scope of the Medicare program, and the resources that are dedicated to oversight and anti-fraud work. One of our biggest challenges has been that we have a program that pays out over a billion claims a year, over $430 billion, and our oversight budget has been extremely limited.

Oh, it's too big now so obviously the way to get costs down is to add tens of millions of more people to the system. What could possibly go wrong?

We may get to find out sooner than later as the Senate Democrats have cobbled together their two health care bills into a single Frankenstein's monster single bill. It's being sent out for CBO scoring and will be unveiled later this week.

Thanks to PA who has the health insurance profit story in the headlines.

BTW- What's up with the AP and 60 Minutes doing these kinds of stories on the eve of the health care showdown in Congress?

Posted by: DrewM at 07:40 AM | Comments (151)
Post contains 342 words, total size 2 kb.

Just awful.

Fourteen Americans -- 11 of them military service members -- died in two separate helicopter accidents Monday, officials said, in one of the deadliest days for American forces since they began combat operations in Afghanistan in early 2002.

The first helicopter crashed in Western Afghanistan after leaving a joint operation with NATO and Afghan forces against insurgents and suspected drug traffickers, officials said. That crash killed seven troops and three civilian U.S. government employees who were reportedly connected with anti-drug operations.

In the second accident, two military helicopters collided in mid-air in eastern Afghanistan, killing four U.S. troops, officials said. No other details were provided, but NATO officials also ruled out any hostile attack or foul play.

Officials said the Afghan and American team had searched a compound suspected to "harbor insurgents conducting activities related to narcotics trafficking," said a statement from NATO officials here. It said a firefight broke out and more than a dozen "enemy fighters" were killed. The helicopter crashed after taking off from the undisclosed site.

This is one of the highest single day death tolls in the war and it doesn't even directly invovled enemy action.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:58 AM | Comments (53)
Post contains 207 words, total size 2 kb.

Res ipsa loquitur

Treasurer of California, Bill Lockyer, last week.

Thanks to Jazz at The Hostages.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:06 AM | Comments (130)
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

No, this isn't about fundamentalist religion stuff, rather its about houses, and in particular thermal gradients. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:23 AM | Comments (202)
Post contains 177 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:22 AM | Comments (27)
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

Welcome all M&Ms. The weekend is almost over so we have to make the last few hours count for something.

Blast From The Past: Busty Japanese Woman Crawls Through Door
And just for the record I'm pretty sure that she was guilty as hell. But the argument 'If the bust don't fit, you must acquit' has such a ring to it that sometimes justice has to take a back seat to serious rhymin'.

The critical reenactment occurs at the 3:40 mark. And okay I know she's a model and all, but did it not occur to anyone else that all she had to do was squeeze through just enough to reach the doorknob and lock. Sheesh.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:10 PM | Comments (893)
Post contains 528 words, total size 5 kb.

Naturally, all the usual suspects on the Republican side (i.e. McPain, Lindsey "doormat" Graham, and the rest of the compromise cabal) are involved in this betrayal.

Its foolishness to be trading away good ideas for terrible ones. More fission nuclear reactors are a good medium term idea to bridge to the future. Continuing work to get self-sustaining fusion reactors, or Thorium reactor working is a sustainable long term endgame that solves virtually all the negative aspects of current uranium/plutonium cycle fission systems.

A shit sandwich, even with bacon, is still fundamentally a shit sandwich.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:09 AM | Comments (265)
Post contains 114 words, total size 1 kb.

NPR had this early this week (click over for interactive map):

I kinda doubt any level of unemployment is going to change Michigan's electoral choices. Those bright enough to recognize the connection between "progressive" governance and Democratic anti-prosperity policies have already fled the state or been driven out by the lack of opportunity.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:03 AM | Comments (116)
Post contains 76 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, county prosecutors do, of course...

For more than a decade, classes of students at Northwestern UniversityÂ’s journalism school have been scrutinizing the work of prosecutors and the police. The investigations into old crimes, as part of the Medill Innocence Project, have helped lead to the release of 11 inmates, the projectÂ’s director says, and an Illinois governor once cited those wrongful convictions as he announced he was commuting the sentences of everyone on death row.

But as the Medill Innocence Project is raising concerns about another case, that of a man convicted in a murder 31 years ago, a hearing has been scheduled next month in Cook County Circuit Court on an unusual request: Local prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves.

The Cook County state's attorney's excuses are not very persuasive. After subpoenaing the students' grades, her spokesman says:

“We’re not trying to delve into areas of privacy or grades,” Ms. Daly said. “Our position is that they’ve engaged in an investigative process, and without any hostility, we’re seeking to get all of the information they’ve developed, just as detectives and investigators turn over.”

Uh huh. It's the Chicago Way.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:59 AM | Comments (53)
Post contains 218 words, total size 2 kb.

Another beautiful October Sunday, another crushing disappointment.

Sundays were made for woe. Particularly for Giants fans.

Talk it up here ladies.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:06 AM | Comments (272)
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.