kstone's Blog

kstone recommended Yep, No Idea by Josh Marshall

2009-08-16T02:53:06Z

kstone recommended Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns Specter He Never Said "Death Boards" by Brian Beutler

2009-08-14T18:07:58Z

kstone Commented on Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns Specter He Never Said "Death Boards" by Brian Beutler

2009-08-16T17:33:01Z

Does anyone really believe Grassley and Specter are calling each other out on Twitter? I can see some junior staff members going at it, and of course the senators are responsible for their own twits.

kstone Commented on Why are they Facebook Stalking Sarah Palin? by J. Clarence

2009-08-16T17:17:20Z

Well said.

The media just won't let Palin go. She's too much of a money maker for them.

Our so-called media (I'm not talking about the independents but the corporate consolidated media) has driven national discourse into the dirt.

It's hopeless when the thoughts of right-wing extremists are given more weight than actual experts.

kstone recommended Why are they Facebook Stalking Sarah Palin? by J. Clarence

2009-08-16T16:27:12Z

kstone Commented on Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor by Zachary Roth

2009-07-24T23:14:33Z

That would require having a policy to articulate. They resort to racist attacks because they have nothing else.

kstone Commented on Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor by Zachary Roth

2009-07-24T23:06:15Z

Ahem. Who is in the Republican Party and what do they stand for? Well, at the top are corporate heads and their flunkies who had made a killing buying off legislators and who live to protect the status quo. There's Palin (who brought a real witch doctor from Africa to make her governor), Limbaugh the windbag, of course. A bunch of teetering old white guys in the Senate who long for the pre civil rights days, and their younger philandering versions. And a whole bunch of paid shill Rove wannabees who repost silly talking points about socialism, the Birth Certificate, and USA! Number 1!

I think the GOP is toast.

kstone recommended Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor by Zachary Roth

2009-07-23T14:34:04Z

kstone recommended READ THIS. RECOMMEND THIS. It's RALLY TIME!!! For Healthcare!!! by synchronicity

2009-07-15T19:24:20Z

kstone Commented on Associated Press Continues To Insist Dem Health Care Bill Costs $1.5 Trillion]]> by Brian Beutler

2009-07-16T15:36:42Z

Not the first time AP has taken sides. It's concerning because newspapers, radio and TV across the country and overseas continue to rely heavily on AP, often as a sole source.
http://mediamatters.org/search/tag/associated_press

Push Back via Media Matters

* Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact.html

Main Number
+1-212-621-1500

kstone recommended Associated Press Continues To Insist Dem Health Care Bill Costs $1.5 Trillion by Brian Beutler

2009-07-16T12:52:32Z

kstone Commented on The case for keeping "single payer health care" off the table by SleepinJeezus

2009-07-15T18:42:37Z

Great assessment of where things are today. It should be noted that if the public option does pass, it appears that industry will gain as much or more than it loses through other concessions such as extending patents on pharmalogical agents to 12-15 years, extension of nonreimportation and other goodies being worked out between the power brokers.

kstone recommended The case for keeping "single payer health care" off the table by SleepinJeezus

2009-07-15T12:14:04Z

kstone recommended The Best Quiz America Ever Saw. Ever. by quinn esq

2009-06-03T00:04:00Z

kstone recommended Weekly Immigration Wire: White House Meeting a First Step to Reform by The Media Consortium

2009-07-02T15:11:20Z

kstone recommended Ever wonder why Republicans aren't holding live town halls on health care? by tpmgary

2009-07-02T00:01:53Z

kstone recommended Post reporters and others for sale by dedelste

2009-07-02T16:47:54Z

kstone Commented on WaPo Does Damage Control After Cash-For-Access Scheme Leaks by Versha Sharma

2009-07-02T18:58:56Z

...and disgusting.

kstone recommended WaPo Does Damage Control After Cash-For-Access Scheme Leaks by Versha Sharma

2009-07-02T16:21:29Z

kstone Commented on CDC was irresponsible in claiming 1 million Americans have swine flu by kstone

2009-07-02T18:47:17Z

The 1976 swine flu scare was very real. The vaccine killed more people than the disease. While one soldier at Ft. Dix was believed to have died from a new strain of flu, also called H1N1, 300 people developed Guillain-Barré syndrome after receiving the rushed vaccinations, and 25 of them died. After inoculating 33% of the US population over a three-month period, the vaccination program was halted. That's pretty scary.

kstone Commented on CDC was irresponsible in claiming 1 million Americans have swine flu by kstone

2009-07-02T18:20:20Z

No, don't shut up! :-)
I've enjoyed reading the comments. Sounds just like something I would have written a couple years ago. You see (and this might sound radical) I think money from corporate interests is driving public health policies and priorities. Yep.

Corporate interests and the mainstream media help fan fears about minor health threats while ignoring larger ones. Three hundred probable deaths due to H1N1 around the whole world (see latest status report from WHO: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_07_01a/en/index.html ) doesn't come even close to AIDS/HIV -- a true health emergency (even in the US where DC's AIDs infections equal that of Uganda).

Another reason I question public health authorities’ handling of and public pronouncements on H1N1 is that the majority of people who reportedly died from H1N1 had serious unrelated health conditions. One has to also at least consider all the money that flows to Congress from pharmas and their lobbyists, the connections between health, defense (See Rumsfeld-Tamilu) and regulatory agencies and industries, the poor track record and negative reports about Tamiflu and other antivirals, how this country and some of the poorest countries in the world stockpiled Tamiflu during the avian flu scare (now outdated stockpiles). And if you STILL resist the idea that there is such a thing as unbridled corporate greed, look at the swirling financial crisis.

Yes, I agree it is the mandate of the CDC, HHS and other agencies to prepare for and ward off potential health emergencies. But they should leave the fear-mongering out of it. People are being primed to line up for their flu shots -- two or three of them this fall -- that will not have been rigorously tested.

Folks, we still don't have necessary firewalls between policymakers and private interests. If I'm wrong and the reports about "swine flu" are not fear-mongering, I am sorry. But somebody should at least be asking, even if it's uncomfortable to think about.

kstone Commented on Specter: Schumer Has It Right On The Public Option by Brian Beutler

2009-06-26T14:03:04Z

I think we can thank the good citizens of Pennsylvania for this turnabout. Now if they could get him to support single-payer....

kstone Commented on How About Some K-Y With Your Health Insurance Coverage ... (..if you can afford insurance that is...) by OldenGoldenDecoy

2009-06-26T13:54:05Z

Thanks for the insight.
It's amazing that so many on the industry side cry that too much government interference and regulation is the cause of rising health care costs. Ha!

kstone recommended How About Some K-Y With Your Health Insurance Coverage ... (..if you can afford insurance that is...) by OldenGoldenDecoy

2009-06-26T10:00:27Z

kstone Commented on Health Care for All - It works great here in Canada by Dr. Goldstein

2009-06-26T13:48:43Z

Great perspective that that has been drowned out of the reform debate (if you can call what's taken place as a debate since many views have been silenced.)