A disgusting vat of filth that no self-respecting intelligent person would wade into.

[Cletus Miller]

Originally posted by Spanky
["It would seem that they are not the results that President Ahmadinejad would have hoped for," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked to comment on the vote.

"I think, despite the regime's efforts to cook the books in terms of an outcome, they seem to have been thwarted in that regard," he said. ]

The above comments seem to imply that the US is happy with the outcome because Ahmadinejad is not. Why comment at all on who should be happy?

And so what? Say "no comment" and let the leakers and the media write the story? Have the story be DOS thinks they can work with the newly elected local leaders rather than a pretty mild (and exceedingly obvious) "Ahmadinejad's folks didn't do well" together with a little jab that indicates that DOS thinks that Iran is, in some ways, a functioning democracy? That's what you'd prefer? Think about all of the implications of complete silence. I think this was pretty close.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Between this and yesterday's NYT story, it sounds like we are sub-contracting Iraq's jails to Mickey Mouse.

eta "are"

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
If we get that great Canadian style health care, here's what yor kids and grandkids can look forward to!

• Borders of life
  Detroit hospitals offer services Canadian patients can't get
  
  
  Mike Lisinski had three options last Monday when he had a heart attack:
  
  Travel two hours by ambulance to London, Ontario.
  
  Take a 20-minute ride through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel to Henry Ford Hospital.
  
  Die.
  
  The 53-year-old Windsor resident was in the parking lot of Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital of Windsor after visiting his mother when he had a heart attack. Physicians there were able to give him medicine to alleviate pain caused by the clot in his heart, but he needed surgery to implant a stent in his heart and they didn't have a surgeon to perform the operation.
  
  Two hours later, he was on an operating table at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
  
  “All you're thinking in the back of your head is, "This must be pretty serious if they're shipping me somewhere else,' ” Lisinski said.
  
  Lisinski isn't alone, and hospitals close to the border make no bones about offering emergency and routine treatment for Canadian patients for care that isn't available — or immediately available — in their country.
  
  Researchers and health care leaders on both sides of the border say problems include the Canadian government's rationing of health care technology, which leads to long waits and drives for services. The average wait for a CT scan is 72 days, 78 days for an MRI and one year to see an orthopedic surgeon, said Dr. Albert Schumacher, immediate past president of the Canadian Medical Association and a private-practice physician in Windsor.
  
  There is also a shortage of doctors caused by a government program in the mid-1990s to cut medical school admissions by 15 percent, Schumacher said. Doctors in Canada receive less pay than their U.S. counterparts yet work the same long hours, Schumacher said.
  
  And the number of hospital beds for the 410,000 residents of Essex County shrunk when the government combined four hospitals into two during the 1990s.
  
  “If you go in for say, gall-bladder surgery, chances are you'll be waiting in emergency when you're not being operated on,” Schumacher said.
  
  Schumacher said about 18 months ago, the government tried to address the problems but it still has a long way to go. There still is a six-month wait for joint replacement, a four-week wait for cataract surgery and five-week wait for cancer surgery.
  
  “That's just way too long when you can get those things in two to three days in Detroit or anywhere else in the states,” Schumacher said.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/apps/pb...612150301/1061

Given that we're 10 times as big as Canada (by pop.) we will be much worse at this.

My feeling is we should try to provide minimal care to the uncovered, but w/o touching the care that the majority of us do enjoy.

I always find it interesting that the second the words "universal health care" are uttered, everyone flocks to the problems in the UK and Canada assuming that we'd be doing the exact same thing here. There's no way in hell a model here would look anything like that.

ETA: and that's not even going into the issues of whether or not a stent is effective or not in most cases.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by sgtclub
I've been sleep deprived since I started practicing law - do I have a claim?

Depends. Is someone keeping you in prison and forcing you to stay awake, as a means of extracting a confession?

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by nononono
And what about kids who torture parents this way? Can we sue them? I realize they didn't ask to be born, but still, surely a little compassion for those who gave them life in the form of big dollars is warranted.

You should read the article about how this guy -- an American who was providing information to the FBI about a company that was supplying terrorists with weapons -- was treated in an American prison for three months. Then tell me if you really think that his experience is comparable to the experience of a new parent with children.


Do you think, for example, that this American citizen, held prisoner, could hire a babysitter for the guards so that he could go out and take a break from them?


I have two kids. Neither of them ever blasted music or kept lights shining in my eyes 24 hours a day for weeks on end. Or prevented me from talking to a lawyer.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Joint Chiefs Tell Bush He's a Fucking Crazy

So, the Joint Chief's think it's a good idea to have a defined mission before committing American lives. Funny that.

The first line of the story is wonderful:

The Bush administration is split over the idea of a surge in troops to Iraq, with White House officials aggressively promoting the concept over the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,



This is the Admin that has been saying, for years, "we are listening to what the generals tell us."

[nononono]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
You should read the article about how this guy -- an American who was providing information to the FBI about a company that was supplying terrorists with weapons -- was treated in an American prison for three months. Then tell me if you really think that his experience is comparable to the experience of a new parent with children.


Do you think, for example, that this American citizen, held prisoner, could hire a babysitter for the guards so that he could go out and take a break from them?


I have two kids. Neither of them ever blasted music or kept lights shining in my eyes 24 hours a day for weeks on end. Or prevented me from talking to a lawyer.

Hey, Sidd! I found your sense of humor. It's about 1000 miles away from you, not that you were looking for it.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Depends. Is someone keeping you in prison and forcing you to stay awake, as a means of extracting a confession?

The greedy partners are forcing him to stay awake to extract unreasonable quantities of billables to fund their oppressively hypocritical bourgeiois lifestyles.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I always find it interesting that the second the words "universal health care" are uttered, everyone flocks to the problems in the UK and Canada assuming that we'd be doing the exact same thing here. There's no way in hell a model here would look anything like that.

ETA: and that's not even going into the issues of whether or not a stent is effective or not in most cases.

I don't assume we would "look like the Canadian system." I assume we'd look much worse just due to the size. Why do you think we'd look better? And for what it's worth, the guy in Windsor is lucky he lives in Windsor. If a city the size of Windsor lacks tha facilities I bet people in some of the more isolated towns are truly fucked.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Sam Brownback puts hold on judge for attending a friend's "commitment ceremony." Not for herself being in one, or participating in one. For attending one. Not for supporting one publicly. JFC.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I always find it interesting that the second the words "universal health care" are uttered, everyone flocks to the problems in the UK and Canada assuming that we'd be doing the exact same thing here. There's no way in hell a model here would look anything like that.

ETA: and that's not even going into the issues of whether or not a stent is effective or not in most cases.

I hear the Canadians "ration" health-care. Thanks to the glory of the free market, everyone in the United States gets as much health care as they want, right?

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
everyone in the United States gets as much health care as they want, right?

same is true for cars and houses, as well as toys, computers, and vacations.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I hear the Canadians "ration" health-care. Thanks to the glory of the free market, everyone in the United States gets as much health care as they want, right?

Did you read the article at all? Look at the wait times in Canada for treatment.

I'm here. I see this crap. I've met a Canadian guy who lost a leg to cancer due to the long wait for treatment. He feels he is luckier than most, since he eventually did get help.

I grew up lower middle class in the US. I always had decent medical. My parents do. Most people I know do. Why break that?

And hint- once we have broken it- there isn't going to be a "detroit" just across the river where you can go when you have the heart attack.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
same is true for cars and houses, as well as toys, computers, and vacations.

Canada rations toys? Did they elect the Grinch Prime Minister? Is that why gwinky moved to NYC?

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Canada rations toys? Did they elect the Grinch Prime Minister? Is that why gwinky moved to NYC?

Introducing the new PM: