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Hightower Lowdown
"Everybody does better when everybody does better." -- Jim's dad, W.F. "High" Hightower
In This Issue
Ignoring so many lessons of history
The four biggest reasons for escalating war in Afghanistan--and why they're bogus
Also in this issue:
Do Something!
July's Lowdown
Big biz wants to own the information superhighway while We the People bump along the backroads
In the 1970s, Lily Tomlin developed an iconic comic character she named Ernestine--a telephone clerk who took perverse pleasure from hectoring customers. Her character was a perfect portrayal of the arrogance of AT&T, the monopolistic telephone giant of that day. In one skit on on the TV show, Laugh-In, Tomlin had Ernestine delivering a TV pitch for the corporation:
"A gracious hello," she cheerfully began, speaking directly into the camera. "Here at the Phone Company, we handle 84 billion calls a year. So, we realize that every so often, you can't get an operator, or for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order, or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn't make. We don't care!"
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HEALTH-CARE TIDBITS
The health-care reform battle has produced a barrelful of factoids and perverse twisters that give insight into the real world of American politics.
For example, health-insurance corporations are infamous for denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition--things like cancer, or that ingrown toenail you had 20 years ago. The National Women's Law Center recently revealed another "condition" that can preclude coverage: domestic violence. Yes, eight states allow insurance giants to categorize getting beaten up by your spouse as a pre-existing condition!
And remember those mythological Obama "death panels" that Sarah Palin screamed about? While they never did exist in Obama's reform plan, they do exist in that Republican-led state of Texas! The Texas Futile Care Law allows a committee appointed by a hospital corporation to overrule families and pull the plug on granny if the hospital deems any more treatment to be "futile." It was signed into law by--guess who?--Governor George W. Bush.
And here are three unhealthy-money tidbits: First, how much clout do health-industry lobbyists have in this reform fight? So much that they got a copy of Sen. Max Baucus' draft legislation even before President Obama did. Second, just hours after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would no longer demand the "public option" that health insurers vehemently opposed, an insurance lobbyist announced a $5,000 per-firm fundraiser for her in his Washington home. And finally, Rep. Joe "You lie!" Wilson, who loudly opposes Obama's reform, has pocketed $240,000 in campaign funds from the industry.
Sometimes, the real story is in the tidbits.