Train of Thought Lounge: Thriller

In addition to being appropriate due to the MJ theme at tonight's Palace Halloween party, this is probably the greatest music video of all time.

Only Thing Left for Skins Fans To Do: Stay Home

I know it's long, long overdue, but it's time for me break my silence regarding the utter travesty that is the 2009 Washington Redskins. As bad as things have become recently, it's been hard for me to find a unique perspective to add to what has been an overwhelmingly negative backlash from fans and media alike to the mismanagement of this team by Dan Snyder. It may sound shortsighted to say this, as I haven't really been alive for that long, but this is undoubtedly the lowest point in my lifetime of Redskins' fandom.

Yes, lower than starting 0-7 in 1998. Lower even than going 3-13 in 1993, two years removed from winning Super Bowl XXVI. That is because even though the Redskins fielded some horrible teams throughout the 90's, the franchise still resembled somewhat of an actual football organization.

Therein lies the problem with this season; the Redskins are no longer an organization, we are a dictatorship. I don't have time to go over all the reasons that Dan Snyder is an egomanaical, self-interested, cold individual. Again, I know I'm young, but even I thought I'd seen it all until he actually banned fans from carrying signs into games.

With this being the bye week, I'll take this opportunity to announce that I'm officially done with the Redskins this season. I'm through with them. At least, as they are currently constructed. This past Monday's loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was the first game I can remember which I didn't feel any emotion at any point. Win or lose, I really would not have felt anything. Each time the Eagles scored (usually in spectacular fashion), I felt absolutely nothing.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm renouncing my fandom; I will forever root for the Washington Redskins football team to win. However, I'm declaring this season over and urging all of my fellow Skins fans to do the same until major change is enacted within the team's structure. So here is my plea: as hard as it may be to do, just stay home. Please do not support Snyder's egotistical regime any longer. I want to see empty seats throughout FedEx Field. Anything less will fail to register any significant message.

Watching this version of the Redskins is like watching a loved one die. There is so little you can actually control to help the situation improve, except helplessly watch as things get worse. The only difference, aside from the obvious fact that football is just a game & isn't life or death, is that there is one thing we can do as fans.

Just stay home.

Evan Bayh's Principled Stand Against Health Care Reform

He's just far too much of a centrist to support the public option. Yep, nothing to see here...

Yesterday, Sen. Evan Bayh joined his colleague Joe Lieberman in suggesting that he may oppose health-care reform, citing concerns about the deficit. Bayh has long been one of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus. But is his stance also affected by the fact that his wife has reportedly earned at least $2 million over the last six years as a member of the board of a major health insurer?

Susan Bayh's affiliation with Indianapolis-based WellPoint isn't news. But a new report on TheStreet digs into the details. It also finds that last year, Susan Bayh sat on four other corporate boards, in addition to WellPoint's. She received over $656,0000 in cash and stock for all her board work, around half of which came from WellPoint.

As the site puts it: "Susan Bayh's corporate directorships provide a significant chunk of the Bayh family income."

It's also worth noting that Susan Bayh was a mid-level attorney at Eli Lilly before joining WellPoint's board in 1998, while her husband was governor. That suggests that the company, at least, may have felt that her value lay more in the access she offered to Evan Bayh than in her own accomplishments.

The report also notes that Susan Bayh tends to sell her stock in WellPoint very quickly, has never held stock in the company for longer than a year, and currently owns no shares. According to TheStreet, that suggests that her concern is less with the company's long-term stock price -- as might be expected for a member for the company's board -- and more with the opportunity to make money quickly and cash out.

Train of Thought Field Trip: Peace Prize Resistance

In honor of Halloween we’re going to leave the usual Field Trip spots in favor of a place far scarier… ResistNet. Also in honor of Halloween we’re going to get their reactions to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. There are sane reasons to not be entirely thrilled by that decision- things like “hey, I’m not sure if he really has done much to advance peace,” and on the other hand there are insane reasons. Guess which one we’re going to find on ResistNet! Write your answer down somewhere and we’ll compare after reading their posts.

Pamela’s post is a good one to start on because it gets us back into the ResistNet norm of long, rambling, incoherent posts right off the bat:

Wonder what that cost his backer....wonder what it's going to cost us in the long run? Can it get any more ridiculous than this. What kinda kool-aid are they drinking! It's all very clear that this whole circus was planned and set in motion a very long time ago and they (bho's backers) knew they would have to pull out all the stops to try and make him look good. Do they really think the American People are that stupid (obviously) they knew he would not have made it at all if the People were correctly informed and the race was run honestly.

Does she think the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by “the American People” or is she still ranting about the 2008 election? Again, write down your answer on a piece of paper and we’ll discuss it later. Herbert L Ring Jr was thunderstruck by the announcement, and soon he starts invoking you-know-who:

While taking my youngest granddaughter to the bus stop this morning @ 7:30, an announcement came over the radio that literally had me shaking. The announcer said "PRESIDENT OBAMA WAS JUST AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE". Can someone please tell me how one man can have so many believeing every word he says? Lately I have been watching the History Channel who's subject has been centering on the ANTICHRIST. Go to their archives, people, and watch what the experts are saying. Then tell me what your opinion is about Mr Obama relative to that subject. It's not just an issue that the people of the United States were mesmerized by his talk, it appears now that the world has fallen for it. If never before, we MUST rise up and be stronger than ever

Just another day on the internet, casually trying to advance the idea that Obama might be the anti-Christ. Worried Grammie stops by to say that Obama might not be the anti-Christ- he may just be ‘the precursor.’

I'm not yet convinced he's the antichrist. I've done months of research on these thugs and there are powerful, filthy rich elitists behind this destruction of this country, who have been following a plan for decades. The thug in chief has been groomed for many years to be the one to finally take down America. If you're read the End Times series by Tim LaHaye, you can see where things are falling in place - I'm just not sure if he's the antichrist or the precursor. It's time to research who was on the nominating committee and who rendered the final decision and then start connecting the dots.

John M is the life of the party:

sorry, pretty sophmoric, but all I can think of to say is barf and puke.

Sophomoric posts are soon put to an end by the return of Worried Grammie, who has been googling up a storm in the name of crazy research:

I am doing research - I want to know who nominated him, how he was elected, and what the connection between those people and the Illuminati, Bilderbergs, etc. is. Last night I found a connection between Blackstone Group (Chicago), who bought out Busch Enterprises yesterday - Busch Gardens, Seaworld and 8 other parks - Blackstone is connected to Bilderberg. Wonder why they want to own all of these amusement parks!!

Instead of laughing Grammie out of the thread, Melinda starts to make some more brilliant connections:

Because in an amusement park there is a lot of scrap iron available in tearing one of these things down . That and the property is prime real estate usually , or perhaps it is they want to change the names and the rides to ( One world order theme parks , enjoy your ride to hell ) .

John P. sums it up pretty well:

This just sucks.

Texas Nell finally says His name, risking bringing the wrath of the Dark Lord down on this thread:

I'd love to know how George Soros is involved in BO being awarded "the prize"...wonder who Soros bought so BO could, once again, look like the Messiah. WAKE UP, WORLD. FOR PETE'S SAKE, WAKE UP!!!!!

Melinda comes back to make up a bunch of stuff about Soros and say that they should “get rid” of him:

Nell, get rid of Soros and you cure a lot of problems , This Animal dug the gold fillings out of the peoples mouths the Nazis gassed before burning them . He wasn't ordered to ,he just wanted to ,and he reported those who had excellent dental work to go first . He also sold out Israel to the Arabs during the six day war ,without the grace of God Israel would have lost that Battle because of George.
Soros is the lowest excuse for Human excrement on this Planet .

Trust me, you do not want to be on SusanConstant’s list:

Sweden is now on my naughty list...

HEY! SWEDEN! You became an enemy of the lawful US government known as We The People and if you so much as take one red cent from us under the guise of foreign aid or goodwill? You got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do! Go shoot yourself in the other foot, will ya?

Honoring our president?! Explain yourself, country next to the country that gave Obama a peace prize! She continues:

The people on the committee are farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr left extremists and always vote in some wack a do person to suit their own agenda. Basically this award is a joke.

But just as others, I almost through up my wheaties this morning over this.

You threw up your Wheaties because this award ruined the ‘everyone in the world hates Obama’ narrative the right has been desperately trying to develop during the last few months. Also, I’m literally laughing out loud at the idea that Obama is far left, leftist, or basically anything other than milquetoast corporatist.

Cowboy Jim rides into the thread towards the end and gives it something special:

This Black ASS has done absolutely NOTHING since he was supposedly elected and I as a Vietnam Veteran having served 22 months in combat can tell ALL of this Great Nation that we enjoy and admire each and every day HE IS ONE HELL OF A LIAR! This award of Peace Prize ONLY DEMINISHES the premise of the award to it's LOWEST LEVELS! I am now beginning to HATE this man and if anyone anywhere does not like my opinion they can also go shove it up therir peverbial butt!

ResistNet: pretty much the spookiest place on the internet.

Motives behind Corporate Whore's Corporate Whoring Remain Unclear

In case you were wondering who was excited about Joe Lieberman's douchery...

(image via Thinkprogress)

Not that this is surprising, it would just be nice if the press made this the focus of their coverage rather than going along with his plea for attention. Or they could have gone with this angle:

Following Lieberman's threat to filibuster a public option, every paper played up the story of how the "centrists" are now rebelling. Watch out, the centrists are coming! "Centrists unsure about Reid's public option," the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Let's get real. These holdouts are not centrist Democrats; they are corporate Democrats, which should be an oxymoron. They'll do whatever the healthcare industry wants and use their red state constituents as an excuse to do so. Only Lieberman is from Connecticut, one of the bluest states in the country. So what's his excuse?

Well, some rather large insurance companies reside in Connecticut and, as Joe Conason points out, Lieberman's wife just so happens to have been a drug industry lobbyist for Hill & Knowlton. Conason reports:

"Among Hill & Knowlton's clients when Mrs. Lieberman signed on with the firm last year was GlaxoSmithKline, the huge British-based drug company that makes vaccines along with many other drugs. As I noted in July, Sen. Lieberman introduced a bill in April 2005 (the month after his wife joined Hill & Knowlton) that would award billions of dollars in new "incentives" to companies like GlaxoSmithKline to persuade them to make more new vaccines. Under the legislation, known as Bioshield II, the cost to consumers and governments would be astronomical, but for Lieberman and his Republican cosponsors, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., the results would be worth every penny. Using the war on terror as their ideological backdrop, the pharma-friendly senators sought to win patent extensions on products that have nothing to do with preparations against terrorist attack or natural disaster."

Calling these people "centrists" has always been one of my pet peeves. While the media can't call them whores or douche bags like some assholes do, pointing out extremely obvious conflicts of interest would be nice.

But He's With Us On Everything But The War!

Someone wasn't getting enough attention:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters today that he would in fact filibuster any health care bill he doesn't agree with--and right now, he doesn't agree with the public option proposal making its way through the Senate.

"I told Senator Reid that I'm strongly inclined--i haven't totally decided, but I'm strongly inclined--to vote to proceed to the health care debate, even though I don't support the bill that he's bringing together because it's important that we start the debate on health care reform because I want to vote for health care reform this year. But I also told him that if the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage. Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill."

Hey Democrats, it's not like we didn't warn you...

The Status They’re Trying To Keep Quo

It looks like the magic of the unfettered Invisible Hand isn’t doing such a great job of keeping prices down:

The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505
billion and $850 billion every year, the report
from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare
analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.

"America's healthcare system is indeed
hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the
opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are
substantial," the report reads.

"The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion
is wasted annually. That's one-third of the
nation's healthcare bill," Kelley said in a
statement.

$700 billion, not bad! There’s a whole lot of additional healthcare you could provide with that much, or we could go with vastly lowered premiums, or maybe we could split the difference. ThinkProgress has more about how much money simply disappears into the insurance companies:

Within the context of companies’ revenues,
insurers skim off 15-20 percent of premium dollars
for administrative costs and profits… Moreover, a
report by Families USA found that “insurers in the
individual market sometimes maintain medical loss
ratios of only 60%, retaining 40% of premium dollars
for administration, marketing and profit.”

The top five earning insurance companies averaged
profits of $1.56 billion in 2008 and reported
spending an average of “more than 18 percent of
their revenues on marketing, administration, and
profits.” That year, CEO compensation for these
companies ranged from $3 million to $24 million.”

While their companies are rescinding coverage and denying care for preexisting conditions, some CEOs are walking away with as much as $24 million?! Gee, I hope healthcare reform doesn’t hit them too hard- won’t someone please think about the plight of the health insurance millionaire?