The links today are a gift from BostonBoomer and MABlue:
Ezra Klein’s links to the House Health Care plan which was released yesterday :
Obama Open to Partisan Vote on Health-Care Overhaul, Aides Say
Both Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said taking a partisan route to enacting major health-care legislation isn’t the president’s preferred choice. Yet in separate interviews, each man left that option open.
“We’d like to do it with the votes of members of both parties,” Axelrod said. “But the worst result would be to not get health-care reform done.”
But will he love us tomorrow?
Health Insurance Whistle-Blower Knows Where the Bodies Are Buried
Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst nightmare. He’s a whistle-blower. Potter, the former chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick—all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”
Potter was deeply involved in CIGNA and industrywide strategies for maintaining their profitable grip on U.S. health care. He told me: “The thing they fear most is a single-payer plan. They fear even the public insurance option being proposed; they’ll pull out all the stops they can to defeat that to try to scare people into thinking that embracing a public health insurance option would lead down the slippery slope toward socialism … putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. They’ve used those talking points for years, and they’ve always worked.”
Alleged U.S. white supremacist arrested in Israel
When Micky Mayon fled the U.S., where he faced firearms charges, the alleged member of an anti-Semitic white supremacist group chose what he might have seen as a perfect hideout — Israel.
The UN takes charge (By Joseph E. Stiglitz)
While discussions about economic “green shoots” continue unabated in the United States, in many countries, and especially in the developing world, matters are getting worse.
This one is very thought provoking:
The Big Question: What’s gone wrong at the CIA, and should it be abolished?
A rule of thumb about an intelligence service might be: the less you hear about it, the better it’s probably doing its job. Instead, the CIA seems to be eternally in the headlines.
Guantanamo like Animal House?
The first full-time female FBI agent stationed at the US prison in Guantanamo, Bay, Cuba says she witnessed a drunken “spring break” atmosphere during her tenure — and has photographs to prove it.
In a little noticed complaint Friday, the 43-year-old agent, Theresa Foley, alleges that she experienced a “generally sexist, discriminatory and ‘boys club’ atmosphere” during her time at Camp Delta in Cuba and that she contracted a permanent debilitating disease as a result of being forced to sleep in rat-infested quarters.
Sotomayor hearings:
Yankees or Mets?
On second day of hearings, Sotomayor Displays Personality, Mannerisms
Judge Sonia Sotomayor Denied My Appeal and I Spent 16 Years in Prison For a Crime I Didn’t Commit
Pedro Martinez may sign with Phillies. Good luck with that.
Who will Halladay sign with? — Let it be the Red Sox, please!
Selig talks about Manny Ramirez and collusion.
Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, watched coverage of Manny Ramirez’s rehabilitation stint before he returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers this month. Ramirez was rehabbing as he served a 50-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
As Selig saw Ramirez being praised at minor league ballparks and being lavished with news media attention, he said he was dismayed. Selig said he would like to negotiate an adjustment to the collective bargaining agreement so that players who are suspended for violating the policy cannot go on rehab stints during their suspension.
Goldman Sachs profits hailed by lawmakers
“Is there a law in the United States that you can’t make profits?” Representative Paul Kanjorski, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, asked reporters.
Kanjorski said he hoped Goldman’s profits were a sign of economic recovery and a possible bellwether for other sectors. “I have great hope General Motors has great profits next year,” he said.
Robert Reich isn’t so sure it’s good news:
Goldman’s resurgence should send shivers down the backs of every hardworking American who has lost a large chunk of retirement savings in this economic debacle, as well as the millions who have lost their jobs. Why? Because Goldman’s high-risk business model hasn’t changed one bit from what it was before the implosion of Wall Street.
[….]
…Goldman is still depending on $28 billion in outstanding debt issued cheaply with the backing of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Which means you and I are still indirectly funding Goldman’s high-risk operations.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has called the rival factions in Honduras to a new round of talks on Saturday to try to end the political crisis there.
When old white guys attack: Forget her actual record:
Jeff Sessions and the angry GOP just know Sotomayor wants to keep the white man down
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The Confluence 