Angela Braly — a general counsel and public relations executive — will become the public face of the nation's largest health insurer, WellPoint (WLP), and the only female CEO among the nation's 50 largest companies.
Current President and CEO Larry Glasscock said Monday he will remain chairman, but he will retire from daily management of the company on June 1. Glasscock, 58, cited family reasons for his departure but did not elaborate.
Replacing him is Braly, 45, an executive at WellPoint or one of its subsidiaries since 1999. She currently serves as executive vice president, general counsel and chief public affairs officer for the Indianapolis-based firm but is not well-known outside the company.
A half-decade of rapidly rising premiums has left consumers and employers struggling to afford coverage and a growing number of Americans uninsured. The situation has renewed efforts in Washington and the states to find ways to cover more of the uninsured.
Congress is considering expanding existing state and federal health programs, particularly for children. Other reform ideas run the ideological gamut, from tax credits to help some people buy insurance to ending private insurance in favor of a universal system overseen by the government... (click title to entry)
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
$48,000,000,000
WellPoint chief is high on Forbes' powerful-women list
By Daniel Lee / Indianapolis Star
Angela Braly, it appears, wields more power than Queen Elizabeth or presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The chief executive of Indianapolis-based WellPoint ranked a lofty No. 16 on Forbes' list of the world's most powerful women. Braly, 46, took the helm of WellPoint, the nation's largest health benefits company with about 35 million members, in June for the retiring Larry Glasscock.
"Underneath the friendly veneer is a hardheaded negotiator and workaholic who grew up professionally in the health-care-industrial complex and is not about to roll over for the likes of Michael Moore," the magazine's Web site, forbes.com, said of Braly, a lawyer known for public policy expertise.
Moore scorches WellPoint and other health insurers in his latest film, "Sicko." With 47 million Americans without health insurance and medical costs continuing to rise, health care has emerged as a top domestic issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10193
"...not about to roll over for the likes of Michael Moore."
"No company benefits more than WellPoint from the current health care mess." -- Forbes Magazine
This Won't Hurt a Bit
No company benefits more than WellPoint from the current health care mess. New chief executive Angela Braly is trying to put a kind face on this controversial business.
Forbes
Two months into her job as chief executive of health insurance giant WellPoint, Angela Braly, number 16 on FORBES’ list of the World’s Most Powerful Women, is on a listening tour in New Haven, Conn. She makes a halfhour stop in the office of Marna Borgstrom, the head of the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Yale offers a WellPoint plan to its 20,000 hospital employees, who each get full coverage—unlike many of the patients who use the hospital. Borgstrom is worried about the cost of caring for uninsured folks and deadbeats. She favors some kind of government intervention.
Braly makes the case that the American system could be worse, the if-it-ain’t-broke argument. “In China they roll you out of the hospital if you run out of cash,” Braly tells Borgstrom. She’s skeptical that government can come to the rescue and predicts that Medicare will run out of money in 2014, five years sooner than forecasted: “I think partnering [among insurers, health providers and employers] on cost and quality is the only solution.” Braly plugs WellPoint’s incentive policy—paying hospitals more when patients have fewer complications. She also describes a new bonus system that pays WellPoint workers more if the overall health of its 34 million members goes up. As the meeting ends, the two women wish each other luck, their views apparently unchanged.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10189
Contact Us
Members If you have questions about your health plan, please call the toll-free phone number on the back of your ID card to reach one of our customer service representatives. InvestorsContact one of our investor representatives.JobsLearn about career opportunities with the WellPoint family of companies.MediaIf you are a journalist, contact our Corporate Communications department. VendorsWellPoint's supplier registration process will automatically enter your information into our prospective supplier database. Learn more.
http://www.wellpoint.com/contact/default.asp
BLUE CROSS OF CALIFORNIA AND WELLPOINT HEALTH NETWORKSTO PAY U.S. $9.25M TO SETTLE ALLEGATIONS OF MEDICARE FRAUD
FLASHBACK: WASHINGTON, DC – Blue Cross of California (BCC) and its parent company, WellPoint Health Networks, have agreed to pay the United States $9,250,000 to resolve allegations that BCC defrauded Medicare, the Justice Department announced today. BCC, which was under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to process Medicare claims in California until December 2000 (Medicare Part A fiscal intermediary) is alleged to have knowingly falsified data regarding its performance of cost report audits for Medicare.
Blue Cross of California carried out watchdog services for the government with respect to Medicare fraud. BCC was responsible for, among other things, auditing cost reports submitted by hospitals and other Medicare providers to ensure that the providers were properly reporting their allowable costs and seeking accurate and appropriate reimbursements.
The allegations were originally brought in a qui tam or whistleblower case under the provisions of the False Claims Act by a former company auditor, Vipul Vaid. The lawsuit alleges that BCC falsified audit activity dates entered into an audit tracking database in an effort to deceive the government into believing that the company had performed more audit work than it actually performed during the pertinent fiscal year. The performance of required audit work was one of the criteria used by the government to evaluate BCC's performance, and renew its contract, as a fiscal intermediary each year.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2002/July/02_civ_435.htm
“SiCKO” Where to view the movie.
http://www.sickotix.com/
Cancer Society Focuses Its Ads on the Uninsured
By Kevin Sack / New York Times
ATLANTA, Aug. 30 — In a stark departure from past practice, the American Cancer Society plans to devote its entire $15 million advertising budget this year not to smoking cessation or colorectal screening but to the consequences of inadequate health coverage.
The campaign was born of the group’s frustration that cancer rates are not dropping as rapidly as hoped, and of recent research linking a lack of insurance to delays in detecting malignancies.
Though the advertisements are nonpartisan and pointedly avoid specific prescriptions, they are intended to intensify the political focus on an issue that is already receiving considerable attention from presidential candidates in both parties.
The society’s advertisements are unique, say experts in both philanthropy and advertising, in that disease-fighting charities traditionally limit their public appeals to narrower aspects of prevention or education.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10190
Marine tells of order to execute Haditha women and children
By Rob Woollard / AFP
CAMP PENDLETON, California - A US Marine was ordered to execute a room full of terrified Iraqi women and children during an alleged massacre in Haditha that left 24 people dead, a military court heard Thursday.
The testimony came in the opening of a preliminary hearing for Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faces 17 counts of murder over the Haditha killings, the most serious war crimes allegations faced by US troops in Iraq.
Wuterich, dressed in desert khakis, spoke confidently to confirm his name as the hearing to decide if he faces a court martial began at the Marines' Camp Pendleton base in southern California.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10192
Industry pressure waters down breast-feed ads
Under pressure from infant formula lobby, appointees dilute campaign
By Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee / Washington Post
In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples.
Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down the campaign.
The ads ran instead with more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity. In a February 2004 letter, the lobbyists told then-HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson they were "grateful" for his staff's intervention to stop health officials from "scaring expectant mothers into breast-feeding," and asked for help in scaling back more of the ads.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10191
The truth about my dead brother
by Dante Zappala
Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 12:32:56 PM PDT
Sherwood was a soldier. At least for the last few months of his life, when his National Guard unit was activated. Politics is high stakes, especially for the ones who look beyond it to make the simple sacrifice of serving their country.
Most of Sherwood's 30 years were spent as a big brother, son, father and husband. He was also a member of the PA Army National Guard. Called into service in 2004, he was protecting the Iraq Survey Group as they looked for WMD, even after our President made a big joke out of the fact they did not exist.
This wasn't funny to my brother, who, at the time of these remarks, e-mailed us and asked that we send him and his men food. Peanut butter. Tuna Fish. Bottles of water.
We never had a chance to let our outrage over this failure manifest itself. Instead, we were left to bury Sherwood. He was killed two weeks after he sent that e-mail when a paint factory exploded. The mission had been aborted several times before because of safety concerns. Under the direction of a British Captain, they went looking for WMD. Sherwood saved lives, I'm told, of soldiers and an Iraqi translator.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/30/14532/0230
Record 47 million in U.S. uninsured
By Larry Lipman and Phil Galewitz / Palm Beach Post
WASHINGTON — June Gammie, 50, of West Palm Beach has been uninsured all of her adult life.
She works as a nursing assistant for a private-duty agency making $21,000 a year - too much to qualify for government health insurance programs, but too little to buy private health insurance.
"I praise the Lord every day that I don't get sick," she said.
Gammie is one of a record 47 million people in the United States who did not have health insurance last year, even as the poverty level continued to decline, according to U.S. Census Bureau reports released Tuesday. That was a jump of 2.2 million from the previous year.
More than half of the increase came from full-time workers, including 1.4 million in families with incomes greater than $75,000 and about 600,000 in families with incomes of $50,000-$75,000, according to an analysis by Physicians for a National Health Program.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10183
Census: Texas has highest percentage of uninsured
By Jason Roberson / Dallas Morning News
Texas again ranks No. 1 with the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the nation – primarily due to the state's growing Hispanic population, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Based on the three-year average from 2004 to 2006, Texas had an uninsured population rate of 24 percent. New Mexico and Louisiana had the next-highest rates, each topping 20 percent.
Minnesota and Hawaii came in at the bottom, both below 10 percent.
Looking at the total number of people, Texas has 5.5 million without health insurance coverage. That's second only to the larger state of California, which has 6.7 million uninsured people. Nationally, 45.1 million people have no health coverage.
The data come as little surprise to North Texas health industry executives; Texas had the highest percentage of uninsured in last year's census report as well.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10184
Protesters demand change in war policy
By Martha Bellisle / Reno Gazette-Journal
As President Bush hailed his strategy in Iraq as a necessity for the security of the United States, protesters lined the street corners outside the Reno-Sparks Convention Center Tuesday morning, calling for the end of the war and for Bush's impeachment.
"I think the war was an ill-conceived idea that's costing too much," said Robbin Palmer, 53, of Reno, one of about 100 people gathered to protest Bush's speech to members of the American Legion. "We're spending a lot of money to see our citizens die. It's a travesty."
Sandi Edwards, 57, of Sparks agreed.
"It's important to take a stand right now," said Edwards, as she waved a sign at passing cars. "Some very close friends of mine lost their son in the war, and I'm out here for him. I'd like to honor him and would not like any more of his friends to die."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10179
Common Ground Health Clinic
Algiers, New Orleans, LA
Mission Statement
The Common Ground Health Clinic is a non-profit organization that provides free quality health care for the greater New Orleans community, and develops and provides programs to address community health care needs through collaborative partnerships.
http://www.cghc.org/
Mark Fiore is a San Francisco cartoonist and animator whose work also appears in the Washington Post, L.A. Times and other publications.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2007/08/29/fioredoctor.DTL
Bring Them Home, don't be fooled again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWzoGGmpqQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emichaelmoore%2Ecom%2F
Dozens on Green protest war, Bush
By Abbe Smith / New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN — The 75 people who gathered for a MoveOn.org-sponsored war protest and vigil on the Green Tuesday evening had two messages for passers-by: Support our troops, and bring them home now.
The protesters hoisted home-made antiwar signs into the air and held candles as one woman read the names of every American military member who has died since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
"We want our American soldiers back on American soil," said Anna Maria Mauhs, a local organizer for MoveOn.org.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10180
Anti-War Protesters March In Village
By Kitty Merrill / Hamptons Independent
It was, according to Nick Santora "a miniscule sacrifice." Sporting a T-shirt adorned with a carton of George Bush as the Energizer Bunny beating a drum that says "war," Santora, who teaches American History in Roslyn, was among dozens of protestors in East Hampton Village who gave up a sunny Saturday afternoon to rally against the Iraq war. Like Santora, Manhattan resident Nydia Leaf was visiting friends in the Hamptons and volunteered eagerly to participate in the protest. She wore a button naming her a member of the "Granny Peace Brigade," and a T-shirt that said "Arrest Cheney First."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10185
With little fanfare, war protester reaches goal of nationwide trek
By Michael Stetz / San Diego Union-Tribune
LAKESIDE – Bill McDannell walked from Arlington National Cemetery to the U.S. Capitol on Saturday.
Once he reached the steps, he stopped and shed a few tears.
He had done it.
He had walked 3,185 miles from Lakeside to Washington, D.C. He had walked across the United States.
“I was overcome,” said McDannell, who began his walk in November to protest the war in Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10155
Bill McDannell Walks Across the Country for Peace
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6566452404386957044=goog-sl
'Sicko' Started Conversation On Health Care, Poll Finds
By Diane Levick / Hartford Courant
The movie "Sicko," a humorous and biting look at the nation's health care and insurance system, spurred debate well beyond the people who actually saw filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary this summer, a new survey says.
The survey by the non-profit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation - which is not affiliated with any health plan - found only 4 percent of polled adults had viewed the film by early August.
"But, with a big free media bounce reaching beyond the movie reviews to the news and talk shows, the new poll finds that almost half (46 percent) had seen the movie or heard or read something about it," the foundation said.
Of those at least familiar with the film, 45 percent said they discussed the U.S. health system with friends, co-workers, or family as a result of the movie. Even 37 percent of conservatives said they had such a discussion.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10174
Awareness and Perceptions of the Movie “Sicko”
An August 2007 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the potential impact of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko." The survey finds that although only 4% of adults say they have watched it, almost half (46%) had seen the movie or heard or read something about it a little over a month after its national release.
Among those familiar with "Sicko," 45% said they have had a discussion with friends, co-workers, and family about the U.S. health system as a result of the movie; 43% said they were more likely to think there is a need to reform the health system. About equal numbers believe the movie accurately represents problems in the U.S. health system versus overstating them. Still, "Sicko" has not altered what have long been the fundamental factors shaping the public's views on health care, such as personal health care experiences and proposals from presidential candidates.
The Kaiser Foundation asked this series of questions about “Sicko” as a part of the Kaiser Health Tracking Survey: Election 2008 from August 2 to August 8 among a nationally representative telephone sample of 1,500 adults, including 748 adults who reported having seen the movie or heard or read anything about it.
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr082707pkg.cfm
Where can I see SiCKO ?
http://www.sickotix.com/
Dennis Kucinich doesn’t appear to be close to 60 years old
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/27/334782.aspx
Survey Shows a High Rate of Asthma at Ground Zero
By Anthony DePalma / New York Times
Rescue and recovery workers at ground zero have developed asthma at a rate that is 12 times what would be expected for adults, according to findings released yesterday by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Of nearly 26,000 workers surveyed in 2003 and 2004, 926 reported that they developed asthma for the first time after working at ground zero (a rate of 3.6 percent). In a group that size, under normal conditions, no more than 77 new cases of asthma (0.3 percent) would have been expected, according to the report, which is published in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a science and health journal.
The health department also found that workers who arrived at ground zero on Sept. 11, when the dust cloud and smoke from the fires were thickest and respirator masks were least available, had the highest risk of developing asthma in the aftermath of the disaster.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10175
Giuliani to Attend 9/11 Anniversary
By Sara Kugler / Associated Press
NEW YORK - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani will speak at the sixth anniversary remembrance of the World Trade Center attack, although he will not read the names of victims.
His presence at the somber event has drawn criticism from some relatives of those who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, with family members arguing that the ceremony is no place for presidential politics.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday in a radio interview on WCBS that Giuliani, who was mayor at the time of attack, would participate in this year's roll call of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11.
Later, a Bloomberg spokesman clarified the mayor's remarks and said Giuliani would not recite the victims' names but instead would read a passage from a text, which has not yet been chosen. The recitation of the names will be done by firefighters, police officers and other rescue workers.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10177
US Attorney General Gonzales resigns
By Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Alberto Gonzales, the nation's first Hispanic attorney general, announced his resignation Monday — ending a nasty, monthslong standoff over his honesty and competence at the helm of the Justice Department.
Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his resignation over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend until accepting his resignation Friday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10168
"They said that Karl Rove was leaving town before the sheriff arrived and the same might be doubly true of Alberto Gonzales."
US president sees another 'Bushie' go
By Edward Luce and Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times
Alberto Gonzales on Monday announced the end of his service to the Bush administration in much the same way that he provided it – without divulging any information. The man who said “I don’t recall” or “I have no recollection” more than 100 times in testimony to Congress this year will go down as one of the most secretive cabinet officers in modern US history.
An intensely loyal “Bushie”, Mr Gonzales will also be seen as America’s most partisan attorney-general since John Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s senior law officer, who resigned in 1972.
A close friend of George W. Bush before he became governor of Texas in 1994, Mr Gonzales was appointed as a White House counsel when Mr Bush took office in January 2001. He became attorney-general in 2005 after the retirement of John Ashcroft.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10169
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
Official State Impeachment Text
Impeachment Text for Cities & Towns
Impeachment Text for County Democratic Committees
Impeachment Text for State Assemblies and/or Legislatures
Jefferson's Manual, Section LIII, 603
You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
San Fernando City Council Pass Resolution For Impeachment
By Richard Kastelein / Atlantic Free Press
SAN FERNANDO, CA -- The city of San Fernando City Council passed an impeachment resolution for President Bush with a unanimous vote on August 20, 2007. San Fernando Valley became the 87th city or township in the nation to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush. The city of San Fernando became the second city in Los Angeles County, West Hollywood being the first, to adopt an impeachment resolution.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10160
H.RES.333 Title: Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors. Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] (introduced 4/24/2007) Cosponsors (18) Latest Major Action: 5/4/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HE00333:@@@N
Peace Network asks motorists to 'Honk for Impeachment'
By Jaime Baranyai / Springfield News-Leader
SPRINGFIELD, MO -- Protesters gathered near the intersection of Glenstone Avenue and Battlefield Road during rush hour Wednesday encouraging passers-by to "Honk for Impeachment."
Pat Chipman, 71, of Springfield voiced her opinions over the blaring horns and cars that sped through the intersection.
"We're here because we want to see (George) Bush and (Dick) Cheney impeached," she said, holding an oversize "Honk to Impeach the Criminals" sign. "We want something new. We're tired of the old solutions that don't work."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10159
Alberto: George Washington loves electronics too
"President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." -- Alberto Gonzales
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/02/06/alberto-george-washington-loves-electronics-too/
Protesters greet Bush in Bellevue
By Ashley Bach and Jack Broom / Seattle Times
On a day when his top law enforcement officer resigned, and flanked by soon-departing adviser Karl Rove, President Bush made his first foray into the Puget Sound region in a year today to headline a fundraiser for Republican Congressman Dave Reichert in Bellevue.
Bush touched down at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 3:15 p.m. He greeted supporters, including Reichert, and presented a medal recognizing Bernie Krane, 74, a Kirkland man who volunteers for the Bellevue Police Department.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10173
"I would be satisfied if Bellevue was shut down."
A police officer points a weapon at protesters as a presidential limousine drives past behind Monday, Aug. 27, 2007, in Bellevue, Wash. President Bush arrived Monday afternoon to headline a fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., just hours after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070828/480/be800cf71f1e47398fbc89093caf5336
Eyes on California as Lawmakers Pursue a Health-Care Deal
Changes Could Set Tone for the Nation
By Christopher Lee / Washington Post
California did not start the current wave of efforts to overhaul the American health-care system, but what happens in Sacramento over the next few weeks could have a big impact on whether the drive gains momentum or peters out.
With three weeks remaining in the state's legislative session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) still has nothing to show for the grand proposal he made in January to create a system that would guarantee health insurance for all Californians. But with the resolution of a nearly two-month-long state budget impasse last week, the focus is turning back to health care, with hard-to-predict results.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10172
Parents' pain begets action
Two of the speakers at today's peace rally share a sad reason for their activism: the loss of a son.
By Noel K. Gallagher / Portland Press Herald
KENNEBUNKPORT—Today is Carlos Arredondo's birthday. It is also the third anniversary of the death of his son, a Marine killed by a sniper in Iraq.
Arredondo and his wife, Melida, will mark the anniversary by participating in today's peace rally and march to the Bush family compound here, in a protest expected to draw up to 6,000 people.
"We are trying to distract ourselves from the pain of losing Alex. We are just trying to get through the day," his stepmother, Melida Arredondo, said Friday. "The alternative is not acceptable. The grief will kill us."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10163
Anti-war demonstrators march on Walker's Point
Portland Press Herald
Energized by speeches from peace activist Cindy Sheehan and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, among others, more than 1,000 protesters marched through Kennebunkport to the Bush family compound early Saturday afternoon.
"This is really energizing to be with people who want this war to end," Sheehan told a cheering crowd at this weekend's rally and march for peace in Kennebunkport. "We can't put our signs away and sit on our couches. We have to press Congress to end this war."
Kucinich, D-Ohio, told the crowd: "We simply have to get out of Iraq. We have to end this war."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10164
ANTI-WAR RALLY: 'Ready for a change'
By Noel K. Gallagher / Portland Press Herald
KENNEBUNKPORT — A high-spirited but peaceful crowd of about 4,000 protesters marched through the streets of Kennebunkport on Saturday in the largest anti-war rally in town history.
"I don't know what else to do but march," said Anne Chay, who was carrying a sign that read, "My son is still in Iraq." She walked with a Military Families Speak Out contingent.
"I've already called everyone in Washington. I have the 1-800 numbers memorized," she said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10176
News Photo Results for "kennebunkport"
Anti-war protester Mike Oren sits in front of a police barricade outside the …
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search;_ylt=A0WTTksOw9BGu4wAeADRtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTA4Mm84YjJyBHNlYwNzb3J0?ei=UTF-8&p=kennebunkport&c=news_photos&datesort=1&fr=
Health care veto is vowed
Governor rejects an employer-only plan to pay for coverage.
By Kevin Yamamura / Sacramento Bee
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday threatened to veto Democrat-backed health care legislation if it relies solely on employers to pay for coverage, upping the stakes on negotiations to enact controversial fees and require all individuals to obtain coverage.
The Republican governor, meeting with The Bee's editorial board, said he would "absolutely" consider seeking a ballot initiative for a health plan if talks fail in the Legislature. As another option, the Governor's Office indicated Wednesday that he remains open to keeping lawmakers in Sacramento beyond the Sept. 14 close of the session if necessary to reach a health care agreement.
But Schwarzenegger said he will not sign a plan by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata as it stands now. Their Democratic proposal, Assembly Bill 8, would require employers to spend 7.5 percent of payroll on employee health care.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10157
ACTION PAGE:
Tell Congress To Pass H.R. 676 Now
Under H.R. 676 [Text of Bill], Medicare would be extended and improved so that all individuals residing in the United States would receive high quality and affordable health care services. They would receive all medically necessary services by the physicians of their choice, with no restrictions on what providers they could visit. If implemented, the United States National Health Insurance Act would cover primary care, dental, mental health, prescription drugs, and long term care.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/petitions/pnum649.php
GO SEE SiCKO by MC ARTIFICIAL -- ABBREVIATED VERSION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZSPSRcX3Qw
Monday, August 6th Through September: After 320 arrests in 39 congressional offices, The Occupation Project is back!
http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
Tracy Pierce Memorial Candlelight Vigil - Friday, September 28, Washington, D.C.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10127
HEALTHCARE & THE WAR ARE “SiCKO”
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/healthcarenotwarfare.html
"Alone Without You" by The Nightwatchman, as featured in the closing credits of 'SiCKO'
http://www.nightwatchmanmusic.com/
Artist on Artist: Tom Morello & Michael Moore
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=8272191
continued...
