Your Breakfast Read, Saturday Edition

Our entire news staff seems to work only for SoD and sometimes for BB (If you have any doubts, just check the volume of news those 2 put out). I have managed to come up with a couple of interesting items. As always, whatever you came across is welcome.

Healthcare Clustref#@k

We have been burned so many times that we will just have to wait and see.
Support For Public Option grows in House and Senate

House Democrats are coalescing around an $871 billion health-care package that would create a government-run insurance plan to help millions of Americans afford coverage, raise taxes on the nation’s richest families and impose an array of new regulations on private insurers, in part by stripping the industry of its long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws.

Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, huddled with President Obama on Thursday, and lawmakers said Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) was increasingly leaning toward the idea of including a version of a public insurance option, albeit one that would allow states to opt out of such a system, in the chamber’s bill.

This is all the right noise, but still, I’m reluctant to sing Happy Days Are Here
Pelosi Intensifies Pressure for Public Health Plan

Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped up the pressure on House Democrats on Friday to support her preferred version of legislation that would require the federal government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers.

I have a headache.
Moderate Democrats hold health bill’s fate in their hands

A handful of moderate Senate Democrats will determine the fate of this year’s health care overhaul, and they’re sending strong signals that while they’re willing to compromise, they’re wary of a strong public option.

“I’ve ruled out a government-funded and a government-operated plan,” said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who faces a tough re-election fight next year. Added Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. “I don’t believe Americans want a (new) government-run health care

And you wonder why I’m not celebrating? Which game is the White House playing? Somebody please kill me now.
Sources: White House Pushing Back Against Senate Public Option Opt Out Compromise

Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say that the White House is pushing back against the idea, in a bid to retain the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

I don’t get this: There is enough information out there to help us make a crucial decision and the hospitals are hiding it from us?
What You Don’t Know Might Kill You

This is not a story about medical mistakes. It is about wide disparities in cancer diagnosis and treatment. The consequence of these disparities is that although America indeed has some of the best cancer care in the world, there is no guarantee that any particular patient will receive it. Worse, in trying to find the oncologist or cancer center with the best track record on, say, stage IV bladder cancer, even the savviest patient quickly hits a wall: with a few exceptions, cancer centers treat these “outcomes” data like state secrets.

Al Franken. Is. On. A roll.

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Madam Secretary

Rhonda Graham has a nice oped
Hillary Clinton ‘a natural’ with foreign policy

She is a masterful conciliator, albeit the first woman so far with the best chance to be the first female U.S. president, who knows how to retrofit her life after a numbing defeat.

No wonder, the secretary of state is now viewed favorably by 62 percent of Americans, compared to President Obama’s 56 percent rating.

Leslie Gelb spent a day with Madam Secretary.
24 Hours With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

“We’re going to work you to death,” Hillary Clinton promised me with a laugh. She was taking me—and PARADE’s readers—along on a typical day in the life of the U.S. Secretary of State. Our 24 hours together would prove both grueling and inspirational, full of diplomatic pageantry, big meetings with policy brainiacs, small sessions with trusted aides, a stream of time-consuming formal duties, and, of course, phone calls and more phone calls. The Secretary allowed me to be a fly on the wall for almost every minute, under the constantly watchful eyes of the Diplomatic Security Service. Having known her since her husband began his first run for the White House in 1991, I couldn’t stop myself from calling her Hillary. To everyone else, however, she was always Madame Secretary.

A Day in The Life of Hillary Clinton: A Photo Essay

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Economy Watch

What will Ben do and when will he do it?
Bernake’s trillion-dollar decision

The biggest decision of the economic recovery will be made in the next six months, and Barack Obama will have almost nothing to do with it.

Forget the debate over TARP, and never mind the questions about a second stimulus. This decision is about when to pull out $1 trillion that’s propping up the U.S. banking system. And it will be Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues who make the call.

That’s hard enough for a White House that knows its political fortunes rise and fall with the economy.

Can you believe these guys?
Short Memories at Goldman

Was it fair, commentators kept asking, that barely a year after the taxpayers had essentially saved the financial system, this firm that took government capital should now be paying multimillion-dollar bonuses? Was it right? Which, not surprisingly, is what Fortune’s managing editor, Andrew Serwer, asked Mr. Blankfein within minutes of taking the stage.

In private, Goldman executives are scornful of the sentiment behind this question. Their view, in essence, is that they should be applauded for being able to pay such big bonuses, because it means their business is successful. People who want them to pay less, they believe, want them to fail.

Aren’t we good at throwing away the money we don’t have?
IG: Pricey new U.S. Embassy in Iraq has ‘multiple’ flaws

The $736 million new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which American diplomats have occupied for 18 months, contains “multiple significant construction deficiencies,” and the U.S. government should try to recover more than $130 million from the contractor who built it, according to a report released Thursday.

The report, by the State Department’s inspector general, cites flaws in numerous systems throughout the embassy complex and says that the contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., failed to properly design, construct and commission the largest U.S. embassy overseas.

BofA pitch on top execs’ pay nixed as too high

The federal pay czar Thursday rejected Bank of America’s proposed compensation plans for top executives, including an initial pitch for up to $12 million for chief executive Ken Lewis, calling the Charlotte bank’s proposal too generous.

Even so, nearly all of the bank’s top executives are still in line for $3million to nearly $10 million in total compensation for 2009 if they meet performance goals. The exception is Lewis, who last week agreed to the government’s demand that he give up his pay for the year.

Communists! Communists! Communists!
Rich Germans demand higher taxes

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.
Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.

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Around The Nation

Wow! Mike Bloomberg really want to be mayor of New York has a lot of money doesn’t want to spend time with his family enjoys the job.
Bloomberg Sets Record for His Own Spending on Elections

Michael R. Bloomberg, the Wall Street mogul whose fortune catapulted him into New York’s City Hall, has set another staggering financial record: He has now spent more of his own money than any other individual in United States history in the pursuit of public office.

Newly released campaign records show the mayor, as of Friday, had spent $85 million on his latest re-election campaign, and is on pace to spend between $110 million and $140 million before the election on Nov. 3.

The US has officially asked for the child rapist to be extradited
US files Polanski extradition request

The United States has asked Switzerland to hand over Roman Polanski to authorities in California, where he could serve up to two years in prison for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement yesterday that Washington filed its formal extradition request late on Thursday.

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Around The World

Profits in the Name of Allah: Sharia Banking Comes to Germany

Germany’s Muslims are finally getting a bank offering financial products that comply with Sharia law. It is a market worth billions, and one that many major banks around the world have long discovered.

Israel Supreme Court: Open ‘apartheid’ road to Palestinians

Israel’s Supreme Court ordered a segregated West Bank highway to be opened for Palestinian use. But rights groups say 10 more ‘apartheid’ roads should be opened too.

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From The World of Science

I wonder what Dr BostonBoomer thinks about this.
The Geek Defense: Do criminals with Asperger’s syndrome deserve special treatment?

How does this gambit work? One of the hallmarks of having Asperger’s is a severe difficulty navigating social situations. This awkwardness appears to stem from an inability to detect facial expressions and other social cues; people with autism and Asperger’s display a notable lack of empathy for others. Indeed, a 2004 study (PDF) found that both disorders are associated with low scores on a test designed to measure social awareness and compassion. Defense lawyers have argued that violent criminals with Asperger’s may therefore be incapable of understanding the harm they’re inflicting on another human being.

That was more or less the tactic used by the team representing Robert Durst, a real estate heir who killed and dismembered his neighbor in 2001. Durst was charged with first-degree murder, but a psychiatrist testified that his actions were the result of emotional deficits and impulsive behavior associated with Asperger’s—so the crime could not have been premeditated. The argument worked, and Durst was acquitted.

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Odds & Ends

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Somebody stop me before I die laughing.
George W. Bush set to become motivational speaker

He left office with the US embroiled in two wars, a Great Recession and with his approval rating a toxic 22 per cent. So the next stage in his career is obvious. George W Bush — who last year inspired millions of people to vote Democrat — is about to become a highly-paid motivational speaker.

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HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!!!

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