State of the art conference facilities aboard the Golgafrincham Ark Flagship
Once upon a time, in a galazy far, far away, the planet Golgafrincham decided “to get rid of the useless third of its population”. So, they concocted a story that the planet was going to shortly meet a catastrophic end and built an Ark to send some of their people to another planct. They filled the Ark with hairdressers, TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, managment consultants and telephone sanitizers. The hairdressers probably just made a noble sacrifice so as to not raise suspicions among the insurance salesman, for who can go without a good hairdresser?
These middle men, who were told that their functions were critical for setting up a new colony, were loaded up into the Ark and shot in to space. History does not record what happened to the remaining residents of Golgafrincham before they were wiped out by a virus contracted from dirty telephones but it can be assumed they finally got the single payer health care they’d been waiting for.
The chronicles tell us that the travellers on the Ark crash landed on prehistoric earth, mated with the neolithic populations and became (some of) our ancestors. Their descendents walk among us today, as Wendell Potter, former head of PR for Cigna tells us. It is only fitting that we return these wandering middle men to their natural habitat. We should send them, plus a few investment bankers and class action lawyers, back to Golgafrincham with a little post-it note that says, ” S. E. P.”*
*Somebody else’s problem.
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Filed under: Health Care Reform | Tagged: golgafrincham, middle men, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Wendell Potter |
The Confluence 
OT, from Palin’s interview with Time magazine —
I don’t like the sound of that.
Which sound are you referring to here?
What is wrong with it. I like the sound of it. She is saying, as HRC said, that criticism of public figures goes with the territory and even tho’ at times it can be pretty uncomfortable—complaining about it does not do any good. She is also saying that there is a difference between speech that finds fault, rips and tears and legal actions that are frivolous but have to be responded to. The first is what we all do with varying degrees of passion; the second is calculated personal destruction to ruin someone legally using the legal system. This is the Alinsky playbook—use the system to destroy the person and the system. It is based upon the belief that the people it is aimed at are not just political opponents with whom you argue and disagree—they are the enemy; they are evil; they are to be destroyed. How can you support that approach to politics from anyone? But that is the Obama approach; it is the Rove approach?
Silencing Single Payer: ABC’s prime time forum “Prescription for America,” which ABC host Diane Sawyer pledged would feature questions to President Obama from “every vantage point,” featured no questions from single-payer advocates.
Silencing Single Payer
They achieved their goal, but we aren’t being fooled and 60 Americans continue to die each day without health care. Contact your legislators and tell them you support HR 676 Single Payer for All Americans.
I remember one of my old bosses, a soon to be retired Chief, telling me that you’ve got to watch when you keep on ‘getting rid’ of the bottom layer of people. Pretty soon that bottom layer just may contain you.
That is very true indeed…
I think I addressed this at Alegre’s corner but what the heck:
1.) people say things on campaigns that they later regret
2.) I think she has a better understanding of what the mobbing is all about now
3.) she was wrong to say that Hillary whined but she is right when she says whining is pointless and we all have to suck it up
4.) her situation is closer to Bill Clinton than Hillary. As an executive of a state, she can’t afford to get diatracted bu nuisance lawsuits and investigations. Since she wasn’t planning to run again anyway, they only had the effect of damaging her state.
We’ve seen other groups launch nuisance suits before with deleterious effects. Think scientology suing it’s critics or the Republicans nearly bankrupting Jim mcdermott over a phone call recording that someone had given him. The purpose if the suit is to distract and discredit even though there’s no there there. Remember how distracting the investigations were for theclinton admin. And there was no wrongdoing. Same here. She is trying to fight these things and the media is savaging her for it.
Well, if you feel comfortable letting the media make all of the political choices these days, then hold this grudge and pile on. I have decided that’s she’s mostly right on this and hope she nails the bastards.
Doesn’t mean I have to vote for her.
very, VERY well put!
But you seem to miss her criticism:
She kinda maintains that Hillary was “whining” and she’s telling her it “doesn’t do any good”. I think that’s absolutely preposterous. Did Hillary whine about criticism? Hillary rarely gets criticized, she gets savaged.
I know it’s not a grievance competition but sheesh…
As I recall, the original “whining” was about sexism not the public eye or criticism. So the question is different and she made no note of that and instead (inadvertently?)criticized Hillary again and failed to call out sexism. But as everyone points out incessantly, she’s a feminist! Seems more like a politician to me-making herself look good.
As I recall, she used the word “perceived” before the word “whining”
But let’s hate her anyway.
Oh I forgot.
Anything “perceived” as a criticism towards Palin is immediately labeled “hate”.
Yeah WTF? Since people can’t seem to understand the plain english she used to describe why she resigned, might as well join the haters.
Actually, the interviewer misquoted her original comment.
But who gives a shit – let’s get our Palinhate on!
I think I already addresses this. She was wrong to say that Hillary whined. We all know she didn’t. But this really is a *tiny* peccadillo in what is otherwise all perfectly correct.
You know, Time put that in there just to enrAge the clintonistas and make people forget about the rest of her statement. They are trying to get a rise out of us so we’ll blame Sarah for what is happening rather than the real culprits- the media.
I refuse to be distracted.
Excellent comment, RD. I agree with every word.
Sounds like somebody has a guilty conscience. Too bad Mr. Potter didn’t get religion before he retired.
Um, it sounds like he retired in part because of his guilty conscience. I guess I should quit making drugs too because some idiot CEO decides to merger to satisfy stockholders, making the cost of drugs skyrocket.
Really. Did not know that. For generics and proprietary drugs too. Wonder why.
Mergers fuck everything up. Researchers hate mergers. While the two companies hire a consulting firm to rearrange the deck chairs, research comes to a screeching halt. No one know what projects to keep until there is a portfolio review. That takes a lonnnnnng time and can’t really get underway until the merger is approved. Until then, the information is proprietary for each company. Thrn, there ate layoffs. Salespeople get hit hard and research units are eliminated. Marketing people lead charmed lives. They are almost never laid off.
So, the two companies’ research staffs finally get together after a year and try to pick up the pieces of their shattered projects while the executives tell them to do more research with less resources, because there’s no money left to hire staff or buy new reagents and equiptment. So, research hobbles by, fraught with scheduling problems and fewer FTE’s. Then there are extra meetings to figure out how to rearrange the workflow through the pipeline using what you’ve got.
Meanwhile, the click is ticking on any idea that ever e
went into a notebook, even if it doesn’t get used until years later. That’s how our patent law works. Created it in 1987 but not approved by the Fda until 2005? And you only get a few years of patent exclusivity out of?
Tough kershnoogies. Nobody cares that it cost $2b to develop and scientists have to eat too. Big Satan is eeeeeeevil for not offering the drug below the cost of recouping the investment. And don’t even get me started on class action lawyers.
Yes, mergers suck. I know people in four companies that are merging who are about to lose their jobs. No one I know is getting rich but Wall Street.
Agree with you about Big Satan and the lawyers. Until they are disintermediated, costs will never have a chance of coming under control. But pharma does have the right to recoup the cost of their research. That is, unless pharma is nationalized, like the defense industry, and we know how efficient that is. Problem is that American patients and taxpayers are subsidizing those vital R&D drug investments for the whole world, not just this country. Doesn’t matter if the company is American or foreign. The important research takes place here. There should be a way for those initial research costs to be more aggressively amortized across other countries who benefit from the generics but do not contribute to the cost of developing the original proprietary products.
Is Big Satan the insurers or pharma. I meant insurers, but no matter. 🙂
He kinda made me feel sorry for him-riding around in his gold-plated jet. : ) Okay, not really but who knows what the corporate hive-mind does to a normally decent person? I’ve never made it that high up in a big(or even small) company so have no personal experience to judge him by. At least he’s aware now. I’m sure most of those type execs go to their graves without a single regret.
Can we just send everyone who ever worked for Goldman Sachs into outer space?
That’s my fondest wish. I say a prayer to that effect every night.
OT, if this is true, it’s the best news I’ve heard in ages:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/206300
“Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK [Holder] is leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate Bush” torture
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Obama is so obsessed with bipartisanship that I would be surprised to see him undertake anything antagonistic towards the previous administration.
There’s so much there to justify a prosecution that not doing so would be a crime.
Did you read the story? It says that Holder is thinking of doing this despite Obama’s wishes.
It would be nice to think that Holder has the integrity and courage to defy Obama. Does anything in his background indicate this might be the case?
I could see them doing a whitewash “hearing.” I’d be astonished if they even go so far as that dog and pony show, but they may recognize they’re circling the drain with their own lies and hypocrisy.
It might be interesting seeing them sidetracking any whiff of Democratic complicity.
It would certainly be a fabulous distraction. All they’d need to complete the circus would be fake styrofoam Greek columns to give it an imperial flair. Hm, I wonder where they’d dig up some of those?
It wouldn’t be a “hearing.” It would be an independent prosecutor, like Patrick Fitzgerald in the Plame case. Once you name one of those, they’re on their own and can investigate as they please.
I don’t know how long that’s gonna last because Congress is trying to cripple Independent prosecutors.
Rs & Ds are trying to render them toothless.
If it’s Office of Special Counsel like Fitzgerald was, it’s part of the Justice Dept. In any case, there was a lot of hope in a Fitzmas that never came to pass and anger that Libby took the fall for criminals who went unpunished.
This is no shot at Fitzgerald. It’s the environment in which he was operating — far from independent. I seem to recall that Fitz wanted a second grand jury. He never got one. And Libby got his sentence commuted.
btw – did Holder’s DOJ recently state there would be NO investigation of Plame/CIA?
I know the Supreme Court recently denied Plame.
Correction: RDs is more the case.
The AG is supposed to be independent of the the prez and has the authority to be independent—not a puppet of the prez. But most of them are not very independent.
The two things I found most interesting in the Moyers/Potter interview Friday night was that Potter says the “public option” will help some but not enough. He also says that the “mandate” would be a gift to insurance companies in that they would then have a shot a 40million plus new customers. Reluctant customers who must buy insurance or be fined by the government.
And for those that cannot afford to buy insurance there will be help from the government. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL